PHOTOS: Construction Progress On New Rail Trails In Sudbury and Waltham

On Wednesday, your StreetsblogMASS editor took the long way home from the MassTrails grant announcements in Billerica to check out the progress on the extension of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail from Concord into Sudbury, and, a few miles to the east, on the Waltham section of the Mass. Central Rail Trail.

The Bruce Freeman Trail currently runs from Lowell to Powder Mill Road in Concord, about half a mile from the Concord-Sudbury town line:

However, construction is now underway to extend the Bruce Freeman 5 miles further south through the town of Sudbury (marked with a 3 in the map below), where it will intersect with a new segment of the Mass. Central Rail Trail (2).

Sudbury: Bruce Freeman meets the Mass. Central

The Bruce Freeman project has only been underway for a few months, so most of the corridor through Sudbury still looks like this:

Further south, though, near the Boston Post Road and the intersection with the Mass. Central Rail Trail, the old ties are gone and the trail looks almost ready for paving.

Here's the future junction of the Mass. Central Rail Trail, running from the left edge of the photo to the lower right, with the Bruce Freeman trail, which runs from the bottom-left edge to the upper right:

Meanwhile, the Mass. Central Rail Trail corridor between Sudbury and Hudson is a much more active construction site. Crews are currently installing a new underground power line on either side of this junction with the Bruce Freeman Trail.

When that's done, the Department of Conservation and Recreation will pave a new trail on top of the freshly-cleared railbed.

In the meantime, there are still some nice back roads that provide decent alternative routes. To get from here to Waltham, I relied on advice from Streetsblog contributor Juliana Cherston's 2021 travel guide to this area:

The Mass. Central in Waltham

8 miles to the east, another major segment of the Mass. Central Rail Trail is nearing completion in Waltham (this trail segment is annotated with a 1 in the map at the top of this article).

This roughly 2.5-mile segment sports some fresh asphalt and hundreds of newly-planted trees and shrubs.

"Everybody's using it now that it's been paved," a neighbor of the trail told me while he was walking his dog on the new path near Lunda Street.

But the project still needs a lot of work before it can officially open, especially at intersections where the trail crosses Waltham's city streets.

And near the Bentley University Campus, the trail is completely impassable while workers rebuild an old trestle over a wetland:

When the project is done, Waltham's trail will cross most of the city, from Main Street near the Route 128 interchange in the west, to Beaver Street near the Belmont line to the northeast.

The Town of Belmont's segment of the Mass. Central Rail Trail is a bit more complicated, because it runs alongside an active MBTA commuter rail line.

But the first phase – the eastern segment from Belmont Center to Cambridge – could begin construction in 2026.