Waltham Rail Trail Makes Slow Progress

By Vincent Stanton, Jr.

The Massachusetts Central Rail Trail (MCRT), when complete, will extend 104 miles along the former right of way of the Massachusetts Central Railroad (MCRR), connecting Northampton on the Connecticut River to North Station in Boston. Design of Belmont’s 2.1 mile segment of the MCRT is proceeding in two phases. Phase I (Brighton Street to Clark Street Bridge) will be 75% complete by the end of October, with 100% design expected in early 2025 and construction scheduled to start in 2026.

When Phase 1 is completed, cyclists and pedestrians will be able to travel east from Belmont Center to North Station in Boston entirely off road via the Fitchburg Cutoff Path to Alewife Station, the Cambridge Linear Path to just beyond Massachusetts Avenue, the Somerville Community Path through Davis Square, then along the Green Line Extension (GLX), and finally under Route 93 and through several small Charlestown parks to the north bank of the Charles River opposite North Station and TD Garden, which is accessible via a pedestrian walkway on the North Washington Street bridge. The final segment of this route—the path along the GLX—was completed in June 2023.

To the west, the picture is more complicated. Progress on the 5.3 mile Waltham path is best considered in three segments:

1. 0.72 miles from the Belmont border to Beaver Street,
2. 3.7 miles from Beaver Street to 1265 Main Street at Hillside Road, and
3. 0.86 miles from Main Street to the current terminus of the Weston path, about 0.1 miles from the Waltham-Weston border.

As reported in the November/December 2023 BCF Newsletter, segment 2 is complete except for the Linden Street Bridge. Repair of the rusting nineteenth century truss bridge and installation of a new deck for path users was included in the Waltham path design package, and was also part of the bid documents issued by Waltham in fall 2021. However, the bids for that component of the project varied over 11-fold among the six bidders (from $177,100 to $2,000,000), suggesting a lack of clarity about the scope of work. In the end, Waltham decided not to include the Linden Street Bridge. (Note that Waltham, unlike Belmont, elected to pay for construction of its path via a $9.3 million municipal bond. The Belmont path will be funded via federal and state dollars; see “Belmont Community Path Costs Explained” BCF Newsletter, May/June 2022).

The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) holds a 99-year lease on the former MCRR right of way from Beaver Street in Waltham to Berlin, Massachusetts, and has guided and funded much of the MCRT’s development west of Belmont. The DCR recently stepped in to take over and pay for refurbishment of the Linden Street Bridge via the Mass Trails Grant program. The project will be advertised to bidders this fall and, according to the DCR website, construction is expected to begin in spring 2025.

There has also been some progress on segment 3, again, under the purview of DCR. In March 2024, DCR awarded a $2,255,230 contract to Kodiak Corporation to refurbish the 1896 MCRR trestle bridge over the Fitchburg Line tracks in Weston (see map on p.7), and extend the path about 0.4 miles into Waltham, where it will stop at Jones Road (covering about 0.5 miles total). Construction is underway, though progress has been slowed by a shortage of MBTA flaggers (required for work close to the tracks), according to DCR Director of Trails and Greenways Gerald Autler. The project is expected to be completed by summer 2025.

As to the remainder of segment 3, Autler wrote, “The segment from Jones Road to Main Street really needs to wait until the roadway infrastructure—Green Street extension, new Route 117 bridge, Stow Street closure—happens. Otherwise our project would be complex, expensive, and would then need to be partially redone when that infrastructure is built.” The timeline for the MassDOT roadway project is uncertain. It appears to still be in the design phase.

As to segment 1, from Belmont to Beaver Street, unfortunately there is no progress to report. It may be worth noting that in July 2024, Duffy Brothers Construction, Inc., the owners of the land east of Beaver Street and southeast of Waverley Oaks Road, applied to the Waltham Conservation Commission (WCC) for a three-year extension of the WCC’s previously issued Order of Conditions requiring cleanup of an oil spill into Beaver Brook (Massachusetts Department of Environmental Projection file #316-0793). The WCC’s July 24, 2024, agenda states: “Applicant [Duffy Brothers] expects to secure a contractor by late 2024, begin site prep early spring 2025, and begin work late spring/early summer 2025.” Addressing that environmental issue may relieve an impediment to progress on the Beaver Street to Belmont segment.

West of Waltham, the MCRT is complete in Weston (opened 2019), extending to Route 126 in Wayland. That segment was built by DCR in collaboration with Eversource and the municipalities. Still further west, MCRT projects in Sudbury and Hudson are in advanced design, with construction expected to start next year.

Vincent Stanton, Jr. is a director of the Belmont Citizens Forum.