Cambridge and the DCR have the
25% plans and
a presentation for the next phase of the Watertown/Cambridge Greenway out. They own the whole right of way already, so the project is just finishing the designs, clearing out the old rails, doing some drainage work and then slapping down 12 feet of multiuse path. It's going to run from where the Greenway currently ends at Arlington Street to the point where the Fresh Pond Parkway path turns into a two-way separated bike lane in the Fresh Pond parking lot. The goal is to be under construction at this point next year. Pretty simple project but should be nice when it's put in.
Watertown was already slated to expedite the Arlington St.-Grove St. segment soon after the first segment opened to get the big Tufts Healthcare facility served with the path. It was also the furthest at the time they could go because of how long it took the Surface Transportation Board to process the abandonment (Newly Weds Foods, the last customer, was opposing it to try to wring more money out of its contract cancellation with Pan Am). Once DCR was able to buy the rest up they postponed the Grove leg to fully sync their plans with Cambridge at a bit better economy of scale.
Fresh Pond's my regular walking route, and re: the 25% design I seriously doubt the trail head is going to snake under the Waterworks driveway overpass because of the absolutely horrendous drainage issues there. Literally the only trackwork that was done in the last 30 years was replacing the constant washouts in that cut, and you can see today that the brand spanking new track panels they put in in '05-06 have already had all their rock ballast washed out and are just sitting on top of the dirt. The soil there is Jell-o consistency mush for a whole week after the rest of the Huron hillsides have dried out from a soaking rain or snowmelt. It's really awful, and not an easy solve with the reservoir right there and the water table throwing all manner of additional complications into the mix at finding a fix.
What they're most likely to do it simply dump it onto the south/Huron side reservoir path right at the ROW's closest approach from the woods, then maybe pave that lone sandy segment of reservoir path to link the rest. And leave the whole parkway-facing side as-is with the current path setup, except for fixing the
missing sidewalk chunk at the driveway entrance. At bare minimum that's going to have to be the interim solution for several years because they don't have nearly enough money to tackle the drainage issues in the cut without delaying the project a few more years. And there's absolutely no reason to delay the project any longer with the property ownership properly squared and all other parts from the city line @ Mt. Auburn St. to the hook-in to the south-side reservoir path being fast and easy construction.
I cannot state more emphatically what a
HUGE boon this is going to be. Arsenal might as well be out in Worcester for how utter shit every form of access is from North Cambridge to the Charles. It pisses me off every time I have to hop in the car to pick up something at Home Depot, because it's either that or the mortal terror of a walk on the Greenough Blvd. "sidewalk". Wait till they figure out the last link around the parkway + Fitchburg Line to Alewife. This thing is gonna be Minuteman II on all-day utilization. I've totally got ants-in-the-pants waiting for them to get this thing opened already. North Cantabrigians will never know how they lived without it.
