Community Path Progress in Belmont and Beyond

By John Dieckmann

Recently, there has been great progress in developing the Community Path in Belmont and the segments of the Mass Central Rail Trail (MCRT) in Waltham, Weston, and Wayland.

Belmont

The Community Path Project Committee selected Nitsch Engineering at their July 15 meeting to be the design contractor for the design of Phases 1A and 1B of the Community Path. Phase 1A is the Community Path extending from Clark Street to Brighton Street. Phase 1B is the pedestrian tunnel under the Fitchburg commuter rail tracks at Alexander Avenue and the short path connecting the tunnel to Concord Avenue.

The contract with Nitsch was approved by the Select Board by August 26, and design work will start shortly. The design process includes public outreach and input; public meetings can be expected this fall. Fully vetted and permitted design takes approximately 2½ years to develop.That design will be submitted to the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization for federal and state funding via the region’s Transportation Improvement Plan, funded by federal and state money, mainly gasoline taxes.The Belmont Community Path is an important link in the Mass Central Rail Trail, so the construction could be funded quickly.

The design work is being paid for by a $150,000 Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) Recreational Trails Grant and $1.4 million of Belmont Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds. The CPA funds were approved for Phase 1B by the Special Town Meeting in fall 2018 and for Phase 1A by the spring 2019 annual Town Meeting. While the total project budget has not been finalized, it is likely to be less than $1.55 million. Any unused money will be returned to the Community Preservation Fund.

Waltham

Consultants began creating detailed design of the MCRT from Beaver Street to Main Street in Waltham in early 2018. Now, separate bid documents are being prepared for removing the rails and ties from the railroad right of way and for constructing the paved trail.

In addition to paving the path, construction work will include rehabilitating the truss bridge over Linden Street and the trestle bridge that crosses Chester Brook a few hundred yards west of the Linden Street bridge. This work leaves two important segments of the path unfinished at either end; a three-quarter mile segment from Beaver Street in Waltham to the Belmont town line, and a half-mile segment from Main Street in Waltham to the Weston line.

The route of the Main Street to Weston segment is being addressed in part by the Route 128 Crossing/1265 Main Street Traffic Improvement Plan. The project developers expect to present final plans, including one for the Route 128/I-95 crossing, to the Waltham Traffic Commission in the coming months.

Design work on the Beaver Street to Belmont segment is pending the results of environmental permitting studies.

Waltham rail trail advocates including the Waltham Land Trust also have been working with a developer who has proposed a housing development abutting the trail corridor between Lexington Street and Bacon Street. The developer will need to present the housing proposal to Waltham’s Zoning Board of Appeals for approval, and advocates are working with the developer to make sure the development is compatible with the rail trail. The developer is pleased to have this important amenity available to the future residents. The developer has pledged funds to support improvements for the trail near the development, and to provide attractive landscaping and short- and long-term bicycle storage.

Weston and Wayland

A five-mile long section of the MCRT in Weston and Wayland (from the Waltham-Weston town line to Russell’s Garden Center on Route 20 in Wayland) has been developed in cooperation with Eversource Electric, DCR, and the two towns. Eversource had already secured a right of way for a high-voltage transmission line and required a roadway along this right of way to enable access for maintenance and repair. They agreed to design and construct the roadway up to the point of a solid gravel and stone dust base and to have the road double as the shared use path. DCR is responsible for funding the paving and construction of a road overpass at Conant Road in Weston. Except for the obstacle of the Conant Road overpass, the path has been completed and open to the public for several months. In late May, Conant Road was closed for three weeks while the overpass was constructed using precast concrete tunnel sections. It was closed intermittently for another three weeks for road paving, sidewalk construction, and other work. With the completion of this overpass, the path is open in its entirety for the aforementioned five-mile section. A significant portion of the path passes through conservation land or other undeveloped land.

Eversource will collaborate with the DCR to extend the trail from Wayland to Sudbury and Hudson within a few years. Eversource and DCR will share the right of way for the rail trail and the electric power transmission line, although the transmission line is underground. The work will add another nine miles to the Mass Central Rail Trail.

John Dieckmann is a director of the Belmont Citizens Forum.