Belmont Community Path gets to 25% plans

Source of featured image above: https://belmontcommunitypath.com/

Hello Infrastructure Week! In this week in which the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) was signed by President Biden, there’s a lot of New England trail news. Actually, some of it is older, I’m just catching up.

Hopefully I’ll get to good news from the Ocean State and the Granite State before long. And that’s not to mention funding updates at the national and regional levels. But for now let’s head to Belmont, Mass., where 25% plans have been finalized for Phase 1 of the Belmont Community Path. As described by Wicked Local:

The path is planned to extend from Belmont Center Station to Brighton Street, traveling next to the railroad tracks. The path will also include a tunnel underneath the MBTA Fitchburg line at Alexander Avenue, giving easy access to the new High School from the Winn Brook neighborhood.

“Belmont community path project takes large step forward”, Eleanor Dash, Wicked Local

The connectivity benefits are so many that they are hard to quantify. The 12-ft.-wide path will complete another segment of the Mass Central Rail Trail, and it would extend west from the existing Fitchburg Cutoff Path in Cambridge through the center of Belmont, where it would serve the high school, Town Hall, plenty of retail destinations, the post office, and the MBTA commuter rail station. Via the Fitchburg Cutoff Path it also extends the off-road connection to Alewife, enhancing bike-to-transit access to the T.

A high school student summarized the benefits:

“I am really excited and supportive of this project, especially about the prospect of promoting safe forms of alternative transport that is more green, so biking and walking. I can see this being really helpful for students and residents alike.”

quoted in the Wicked Local article linked above

The 25% plans were presented by design firm Nitsch Engineering in a virtual meeting held on Nov. 4. Like the new section of the Cochituate Rail Trail, the Belmont Community Path will have a trail roundabout, which will be near a culvert underpass for the Alexander Avenue-to-Concord Avenue spur. The estimated $17 million project is expected to be completed by 2027.

More information is here.