Mary Byrne
The long-awaited Community Path is nearing the end of the 75% design process for Phase I, with just a few technical steps left before the consultants submit plans to the state.
“Now you’re seeing the finer details,” said Holly Muson, chair of the Community Path Project Committee. “The vegetation, plantings, fencing — both protective (at the rail tracks), but also a wood rail fence between the path and property owners’ yards.”
Muson said the consultants, Nitsch Engineering and Copley Wolff Design, recently presented design and engineering plans as they work toward finalizing the 75% design, which will eventually be submitted to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT). Before that can happen, the consultants need to have a comment-resolution meeting with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) and update some of their land surveys.
Roughly 50 residents and abutters were in attendance for the hour-long presentation on June 11 at the Beech Street Center, which was followed by an opportunity for attendees to review the design plans.
The Community Path project has been considered for more than two decades. In 2019, the town selected Nitsch Engineering to design the path. Phase 1 will run from the Fitchburg Cutoff Path at the Cambridge line to the Clark Street bridge. When Phase 2 is finished, it will complete a 2-mile link in the Mass Central Rail Trail, which will eventually run 104 miles from Boston to Northampton.
According to the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization, Phase 1 will cost $21.3 million, with $17 million coming from the federal government and the balance from non-federal sources.
Muson said while 100% of the construction is funded with state and federal money through the state’s Transportation Improvement Program, the design and right-of-way acquisition costs are the town’s responsibility. Town Meeting recently approved $160,000 in Community Preservation Act money, which will serve as the match for a $475,000 MassTrails grant awarded to the town this week.
The grant came as part of $12 million in funding to support 65 trail improvement projects across Massachusetts, according to the Department of Conservation and Recreation.
Muson said consultants collected feedback from abutters last month about what types of concerns they had for privacy. Alternatively, there were abutters who wanted to have direct access to the path.
“There was a wide gamut of input that came from abutters,” she said.
Others at the meeting questioned whether the tunnel at the intersection of Alexander Avenue and Channing Road, which will provide access to the new high school and middle school, would be open ahead of the path completion. Muson said that was “pretty unlikely” given that it will be a primary access point for construction crews, as they won’t want to access the path through people’s backyards.
According to Muson, there were also questions about the location of some MBTA-owned propane tanks that could potentially conflict with the path.
Muson said that according to Tom Currier, the MassDOT project supervisor, the path is still slated for bidding in February 2026, with construction expected to begin by that summer. If they stay on schedule, Phase 1 should be done in 2029.
“I don’t see anything as a big red flag,” Muson said. “I think it’s marching along as it’s supposed to.”
In the meantime, the public is welcome to continue submitting comments through the project website: belmontcommunitypath.com.
