PHOTOS: Construction Progress On New Rail Trails In Sudbury and Waltham
3:11 PM EDT on June 16, 2023
Fencing blocks the new segment of the Mass. Central Rail Trail near Main Street and Border Road in Waltham. The “No Trespassing” sign on the fence says “police take notice,” but someone with a marker edited the sign to cross out “take notice” and wrote “do not care” instead.
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:
The current southern terminus of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail, at Powder Mill Road in Concord. Construction workers are currently clearing the way for a 3.5-mile extension of the trail beyond this underpass into Sudbury.
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).
An overview map of Mass. Central and Bruce Freeman Rail Trail projects under construction. (1): a 2.8-mile section of the Massachusetts Central Rail Trail (MCRT) through Waltham. (2): A 7.5-mile MCRT connection from Sudbury to Hudson. (3): A 5-mile extension of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail from Concord to Sudbury.
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:
The Bruce Freeman Rail Trail corridor near its crossing of Pantry Road in Sudbury in June 2023. Most of the rail corridor is walkable, but still has railroad ties that make it too rough for bicycle riding.
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:
Erosion-control fencing marks the boundaries of two trail corridors under construction in Sudbury. On the left is the Mass. Central Rail Trail, which will continue west from this point to Hudson; on the right is the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail, which is being extended from its current southern terminus in Concord.
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:
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.
Newly-planted trees and shrubs line the new segment of the Mass. Central Rail Trail near Hammond Street in Waltham.
"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:
Construction work on the Mass. Central Rail Trail in Waltham in June 2023. This old railroad trestle is being restored to carry the trail over Chester Brook near Linden Street.
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.