81 trail improvement projects across Massachusetts are being funded by the 2022 cycle of the MassTrails Grant Program, as announced by the Baker-Polito Administration late last month. The program is a collaboration of the Governor’s Office, MassDOT, MassDCR, and the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, an inter-agency effort that hints at the multiple cross-benefits of trails (e.g. utilitarian transportation, recreation, exploration of nature, pollution reduction, and climate change mitigation).
This year’s cycle totals $11.4 million in funding from the Commonwealth. This is leveraged with $22.0 million in local match funding and $1.3 million in charitable funding from the Conine Family Foundation. A complete list of awardees can be seen here (PDF).
As the list shows, the program is a “big tent” for many different types of trails and trail-related needs. There are grants for paved shared-use paths (the focus of this blog), walking/nature trails, riverwalks, on-street bike-ped connections to trails, new or improved trail parking areas, trail amenities like benches and interpretive signage, snowmobile and other off-highway vehicle (OHV) trails, universal access improvements, trail maintenance equipment, trail ranger/educator staff, and more. And it funds all phases, from feasibility studies, through construction, to maintenance of existing trails. It’s truly an impressive funding program and one that other states, if they don’t have them already, should strongly consider emulating.
Streetsblog MASS has a great summary with highlights of several of the utilitarian bike-ped path awards.
The program, which announced its first round of grants in 2019, has proven remarkably popular, and lawmakers and private philanthropists have more than doubled the program’s funding from $5 million in 2019 to $11.4 million this year.
As in past years, the grants will advance dozens of trail projects that will fill in missing links in the state’s growing network of off-street multi-use paths and walking trails.
Streetsblog MASS
Indeed, missing-link projects abound amongst the 2022 grantees. For example:
- As described in the Streetsblog MASS article, design funding from the Conine Family Foundation for a bridge improving access to the Neponset River Greenway for the Hyde Park neighborhood in Boston.
- Design for the Amesbury Carriagetown Connector, west of I-95, to fill in a gap in the coastal trails network that includes the Amesbury Riverwalk, Salisbury Ghost Trail, Eastern Marsh Trail, and the Garrison Trail built along I-95 and the Whittier Bridge.
- Design for parts of the Cape Cod Rail Trail, Phase 4, in Barnstable, to shorten the CCRT gap between the Cape Code Canal and Yarmouth. Phase 3, in design and expected to be under construction in 2023 or 2024, will already be narrowing that gap by extending the existing trail west from Yarmouth into Barnstable.
- Design funding for Belmont Community Path, Phase 2. When paired with the under-construction Wayside Trail in Waltham (a 2019 MassTrails grantee), the two Belmont phases (Phase 1 passed the 25% plan milestone in late 2021), will greatly narrow the Mass Central Rail Trail gap between Cambridge and Weston.
- Rail trail design in Southampton to narrow one of the last two major gaps in the New Haven-Northampton Canal Greenway, which includes Connecticut’s Farmington Canal Heritage Trail.
- Design funding for Framingham and Sudbury to complete the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail! (Yes, the thought of a complete BFRT deserves an exclamation point, or two!)
Kudos to the MassTrails Program, the Conine Family Foundation, and all the municipalities and organizations who are moving these trail projects along.
Jeff Brubaker 