With construction slated to begin in the coming year, supporters of the Belmont Community Path are urging state and local officials to remain on target.
In fact, as of this week, an online petition to that effect has been signed by 276 members of the Belmont and surrounding communities.
“From my perspective, what it does is help to amplify the validity of the path project, both Phase 1 and Phase 2, to residents who might sign the petition,” said Holly Muson, chair of the Community Path Project Committee. “The petition will be sent to the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), who is our funding organization, to demonstrate the continued strong level of support.”
Though signatures are still being collected, the petition, with signatures collected up to May 20, was formally documented as public comments in the final 2026-2030 Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP). According to the petition, the Boston Region MPO recently proposed full funding for Phase 1 in fiscal year 2026 in the draft 2026-30 TIP. Previously, construction for Phase 1 was fully funded in June 2024 across fiscal years 2025 and 2026 as part of the 2025-29 TIP.
“As the chair of the committee, it feels gratifying to know we are doing what residents want us to do,” Muson said.
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.
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Part of the work will include improving the landscaping, including removing invasive species from land along the tracks and sprucing up the land above the Leonard Street overpass, which currently isn’t accessible to pedestrians.
“It’s going to change the relationship for pedestrians and cyclists with Leonard Street,” she said.
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. Everything is on track right now, Muson said, but timing is crucial to remain on the anticipated funding schedule.
As engineers work toward completing the 75% design phase, the project has until the end of September 2026, the end of the federal fiscal year, to go out for construction bids and be eligible for FY26 funding. To get there, the project consultant will have to complete its mapping of the underground utilities in the area of the train tracks between the Winn Brook Elementary School neighborhood and Belmont High School, where the underpass will go.
“The MBTA does not have complete documentation about where and what types of utilities are underground, so before beginning construction, our contractor will need to verify if there are utilities in place and if they need to be relocated or protected during the course of construction,” Muson said. “It took more than six months to get the permitting in place … so that’s what has taken a very long time.”
That work will take a few weeks, and whatever information comes back from that survey may require further exploration, but either way, it will need to be incorporated into construction documents. Ideally, the group is looking at the completion of this work by the end of the summer.
Town officials previously said delays to the project have eliminated any buffer room for meeting the necessary deadlines for the state’s fiscal year 2026 funding schedule.
At this point, the design is at the fine-tuning stage.
“What we see in the 75% plans … that is essentially what’s going to get built,” she said.
