New Trails to Look Forward To In 2026

Massachusetts opened over 40 miles' worth of new off-street trails in 2025, and more than a dozen new projects are expected to break ground in 2026.

By Christian MilNeil

7:36 AM EST on December 23, 2025

A woman in a black coat and orange hat walks over a short bridge on a straight paved trail lined with wooden fences. The trail runs through a meadow lined with trees with bright red and orange fall leaves. A sign next to the bridge reads "PANTRY BROOK" — The Bruce Freeman Rail Trail crossing of Pantry Brook in Sudbury – part of a 5-mile segment of the Bruce Freeman Trail that opened in 2025.

Over the past year, Massachusetts state agencies opened up approximately 40 miles' worth of new shared-use paths and curb-protected bikeways across the state – part of a growing network that's becoming more connected and extensive every year.

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We've already covered a few of these projects in detail over the past year – including the new 5-mile extension of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail from Concord into Sudbury (pictured above), the new Clippership Connector in Medford, the redesigned Hammond Pond Parkway in Newton, and the new shared-use pathways along Davol Street on the Fall River waterfront.

In addition to those, the Commonwealth also opened:

A new 4.5 mile pathway along the Route 6 Service Road in Sandwich – a project that significantly reduces the gap between the Cape Cod Rail Trail to the Cape Cod Canal pathways in Bourne
A 4.5-mile extension of the WWII Veterans Memorial Rail Trail in Mansfield across the town of Norton
A 2.3-mile, more accessible reroute of the Mass. Central Rail Trail across a hillside in Holden
A 1.5 mile trail along the top of the Westfield River levee in Westfield
A 0.3-mile segment of the Mass. Central Rail Trail that extends the Weston segment of the trail over the city line into Waltham via a rehabbed railroad bridge over the Fitchburg Line.

MassDOT also incorporated a considerable number of new paths and protected bikeways in highway projects – a consequence of the state's updated design criteria, which require the state's roads to incorporate safe walking and biking facilities.

This year, MassDOT gave us a 1.5 mile shared-use pathway as part of its reconstruction of Meadow Road in the central Massachusetts town of Spencer, a pair of shared-use paths on both sides of the roadway in its Route 9 reconstruction project in Hadley, and a mile-long shared-use path alongside Shrewsbury Street and Doyle Road in Holden, among others.

Opening soon

Notably absent in the list of official openings for 2025 is the 7.5-mile extension of the Mass. Central Rail Trail in Sudbury and Hudson, which was expected to wrap up construction this year.

The project hasn't met that deadline, but it's mostly complete, and lots of people are already using the new path.

The newly-built Mass. Central Rail Trail crossing of Wash Brook in Sudbury, pictured here in October 2025. This is part of a 7.5 mile trail project that's expected to hold its official ribbon-cutting in 2026.

When things thaw out in the spring, workers will be back to do the finishing touches – which mostly involve installing new crosswalk warning lights and ramps where the trail intersects with roadways – and the state will host an official ribbon-cutting.

Similarly, a restoration project for the Linden Street railroad bridge in Waltham is still not quite complete. While that bridge remains under construction, Waltham's eastern segment of the Mass. Central Rail Trail between Beaver Street and Middlesex Circle is mostly inaccessible.

Other projects that are under construction and expected to open in 2026 are:

The Northern Strand Trail downtown Lynn extension to Nahant Beach

A city street with a n ornate three-story building on the opposite side with a large sign reading "ZIMMAN'S" above its ground-floor storefront. In the foreground a curbed median divides the street with two lanes for cars on the left and a bike path and sidewalk to the right. — Market Street in downtown Lynn, with the new curb-protected Northern Strand Trail under construction in the foreground.

The Edgewater Greenway along the Neponset River in Mattapan
The Commonwealth Avenue Carriageway shared-use path in the Auburndale village of Newton
The Leo Birmingham Parkway shared use path in Allston and Brighton

A highway construction site. New granite curbs have been installed in the middle of an older roadway in the center of the photo, with a packed gravel path to the right, and two car lanes to the left. An inset at lower left shows what the same scene looked like before construction, when the same view showed a wider roadway next to a dirt track on the side of the road. — New curbs have been installed to narrow the Leo Birmingham Parkway near the intersection with Market Street, pictured here in August. The gravel path to the right will later be paved to create a shared-use bike and pedestrian path where previously there had been no sidewalks (see "before" photo at lower left, courtesy of Google Street View).

Breaking ground

MassDOT also expects to begin construction on more than a dozen new trail projects in 2026. When they're done, these will add another 20 miles' worth of new trails – and perhaps more importantly, a number of them would fill significant gaps in regional trail networks.

Among the projects scheduled to begin construction in 2026:

The new Mystic River bike and pedestrian bridge between Somerville and Everett. Savvy readers may remember that state officials also told us two and a half years ago that this project was going to break ground in 2024. Since then, though, MassDOT has taken over the project's management from the state's parks agency. They have more experience managing large construction projects like this one, and it's now attained the critical "25 percent design" milestone. If and when it's built, it will fill a major gap in the Mystic River Greenways network, and finally connect the Northern Strand Trail to Somerville and Boston.

Locator map of the Peabody Independence Greenway, and the Lynnfield/Wakefield Rail Trail, illustrating their proximity to downtown Salem (at lower right) and connections to the existing Danvers Rail Trail (upper center). — A map of rail trails – existing and proposed – in the North Shore as of December 2025. Green-dashed lines indicate segments that are expected to begin construction in 2026. Red-dashed lines are planned longer-term connections.

Further north, the Independence Greenway in Peabody will see two extensions begin construction in the next year (see map above). One project will extend the greenway eastward, under Route 128, closer to the city's downtown district. A second project will connect the two disconnected segments on the east and west sides of the city with a new trail under I-95 and a new bridge over Route 1. That new connection will also connect the Independence Greenway to the Danvers Rail Trail to provide a key link in the Border to Boston greenway.
The town of Lynnfield also expects to break ground on its first phase of the Lynnfield/Wakefield Rail Trail, which will extend from the Peabody/Lynnfield town line to Lynnfield Middle School near Lynnfield's town center. This trail follows the same abandoned railbed as the Danvers Rail Trail, and could eventually connect to the Border to Boston trail network.
Phase 1 of the Belmont Community Path is expected to break ground in late 2026. This project will extend west from the existing Fitchburg Cutoff path at the Cambridge/Belmont line, and significantly reduce the length in one of the last remaining gaps in the Mass. Central Rail Trail in the Boston region.
On the south coast, the Marion Pathway will begin construction in late 2026. This project will extend an existing trail segment to the south in neighboring Mattapoisett, then continue 4 miles around the northern edge of Marion's town center to Point Road near the Marion/Wareham town line. This project represents a significant link in the conceptual South Coast Bikeway, which aims to connect the Cape Cod Rail Trail network to the East Bay Bike Path in Rhode Island.
MassDOT also plans to start several roadside shared-use pathways as part of planned highway projects in 2026. These include a mile-long shared-use path along U.S. Route 5/Mount Tom Road that will connect to the Manhan Rail Trail in Easthampton, the reconstruction of the Chandler Street/May Street intersection in Worcester, the conversion of two highway lanes into a shared-use path to the beach on Route 6 in Provincetown, and several others.