Extension of the Cochituate Rail Trail is close to the finish line

2020 was a year of progress for the extension of the Cochituate Rail Trail (CRT) in Framingham and Natick.

The project is one of several pieces of a Boston MetroWest regional shared use path network that has seen steady progress over the last few years. The Bruce Freeman Rail Trail has forged south through Acton and into Concord, with design and right-of-way acquisition for its Sudbury segments moving forward. The Assabet River Rail Trail‘s Maynard segment opened in 2018. And various gap-filling efforts are underway for the Mass Central Rail Trail between Belmont and Wayland. Further in the northwest exurbs, construction on the Twin Cities Rail Trail is beginning to link Fitchburg and Leominster with an off-road, low-stress walking and bicycling route.

Zooming out to other parts of the metro area, just before New Year’s, Streetsblog Mass. did a quick profile on the CRT as well as two other new “trails to look forward to in 2021”: the Watertown-Cambridge Greenway and the extension of the Northern Strand Community Trail in Lynn, Saugus, and Revere.

All of the above projects are north of the Mass Pike/I-90. The southern half of the western suburbs arguably has a less complete trail network, despite in-the-works trail visions such as the Upper Charles Rail Trail and the Bay Colony Rail Trail. The CRT extension not only adds to the progress south of the Pike; it also extends a trail that currently connects one half to the other half.

The existing ~1.2-mile CRT runs along a sewer easement between Saxonville Village in Framingham and State Route 30 (Commonwealth Rd.), near Cochituate State Park and the Framingham-Natick border. It includes both the all-important Pike underpass and another one under the Route 30 interchange ramps. It’s great for Saxonvillians to walk or bike to…Home Depot and Margarita’s. Well, actually, more than that. The state park entrance is a little ways to the east along Route 30, which now boasts some recent sidewalk improvements and buffered bike lanes.

I am probably missing one, but I’m not aware of any other formal, paved shared-use bike-ped paths that cross the Pike in the 40+ miles between the Blackstone River Bikeway in Millbury and the I-90/93 interchange in Boston’s South End. (I am excluding the likes of grassy aqueduct walking paths, more purely pedestrian-oriented overpasses, on-street bike lanes, and sidewalks along busy roads that might be tempting options for less confident cyclists.)

In 2020, the 2.2-mile CRT extension southeast to Natick Center was all-but-completed. The trail is paved. Scenic overlooks with interpretive signage near the shore of Lake Cochituate have taken shape. And, in a crowning achievement, a bridge over Route 30 was installed in mid-November. Construction updates have been posted on the Town of Natick website and the Cochituate Rail Trail Facebook page. The Town’s GIS department Facebook page also has a cool drone time-lapse video of the bridge installation.

As with many shared-use paths, the project has been a multi-year collaboration at the local, state, and federal government level. Its funding is 80% federal, 20% state, and the right-of-way for the trail was purchased by the Town of Natick from CSX in 2016 for $6 million. Private citizens are helping out too — for example, by purchasing commemorative bricks that will go to the maintenance of the trail. PS&E was approved by MassDOT in July 2018, and bidding took place in September of that same year. Construction started in July 2019, and the finishing touches will be placed this spring.

The extended trail will provide access to Saxonville Village, Natick Mall (via a spur), Lake Cochituate State Park, Natick Center, and the Framingham-Worcester Line of the MBTA Commuter Rail System. While some parts of the trail pass by industrial buildings and office parks, many parts will have a nice tree canopy and great views of the lake, so the recreational benefits of the existing trail segment will only be augmented.

Some February 2020 photos