Biking the Boston 'Burbs (Trails, MDC, & Towns beyond Hubway area)

Note that it connects to the Narrow Gauge Rail Trail in Bedford, not the Minuteman. That will bring you to the Minuteman, but it's not paved.
 
Ah yes. My bad. Still, it'll be good for bikes, but bad for rollerbladers if they want to go from Billerica to the Minuteman.
 
Paving/road diet of Lexington Street in Waltham is still planned for this Spring. Gas line work last year near Lake Street delayed the work to this spring. Bike lanes are planned from Curve St to Windsor Village Apartments.
 
The DCR, in something of a surprise (but also long-promised), has begun building paths along the Mystic in Medford, partly filling a missing llink.

The section under construction runs between the Whole Foods (near the U Haul warehouse) and Winthrop Street (Route 38).

Local advocate Ken Kraus has posted pictures to Facebook. I didn't see if the project will upgrade and connect the various segments and gaps from Winthrop ST opposite St Joseph s to the Craddock Bridge (a messy construction site right now)
 
Scipio said:
A list of all the suburban infrastructure I'm aware of that's supposed to open or at least start construction this year:

Projects not yet under construction that are supposed to start in 2017

• Missing link of Watertown/Cambridge path from Fresh Pond in Cambridge to Arlington Street in Watertown. (Had an end of 2016 start with an end of 2017 opening, but seems to have missed target start date. Cambridge still fighting over lighting.)
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The railroad tracks in the vicinity of the Cambridge Public Works/Fresh Pond area were recently fenced off. Is this moving ahead then?

http://www.cambridgema.gov/cdd/projects/transportation/watertowncambridgegreenway has no new information posted.
 
Early work for the Lexington Street road diet in Waltham is now underway. Crews are installing new ADA compliant handicap ramps. Next crews will mill and resurface the pavement some time in May. The new traffic pattern should hopefully be in place by Early to Mid June.
 
chmeeee said:
Lynnfield approves plan for a trail along the Newburyport ROW. Anybody know anything about this?

https://patch.com/massachusetts/lynnfield/rail-trail-article-approved-one-vote

Also, check out how close that vote was.
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I was in Lynnfield recently and noticed a lot of signs protesting the trail calling it unsafe. I found this odd and did a bit of reading on it.

It's part of a plan with Wakefield to build a bike path that goes the center of Wakefield through Lynnfield to the border with Peabody. And if Peabody got on board it could connect to the Danvers Rail Trail (thus extending the Border-to-Boston to Wakefield). Some potential abutters who like their privacy then started protesting with with every trick in the NIMBY playbook. Here's the opposition website which includes gems like this:

These connected paths would span the entire East Coast from Florida all the way to Canada. We are aware that this expanded trail system would encourage people from all over Massachusetts and even other states to travel through our neighborhoods. We do not agree that Lynnfield would benefit from the ‘tourism’ associated with these trails… or the possible criminal activity.
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whittle said:
I was in Lynnfield recently and noticed a lot of signs protesting the trail calling it unsafe. I found this odd and did a bit of reading on it.

It's part of a plan with Wakefield to build a bike path that goes the center of Wakefield through Lynnfield to the border with Peabody. And if Peabody got on board it could connect to the Danvers Rail Trail (thus extending the Border-to-Boston to Wakefield). Some potential abutters who like their privacy then started protesting with with every trick in the NIMBY playbook. Here's the opposition website which includes gems like this:
Click to expand...

At least the globe article seems to do a good job showing their concerns are pretty silly.
 
That path would be a lovely thing if it was connected through, but crossing Rte 1 is going to be a bit of an issue.
 
Wow, that's crazy how close the Lynnfield vote came.

In cases where a town declines a lease offer does the rail corridor stay with the state until trail advocates can try again in a few years, or does the state start looking for other uses like selling it to abutters?
 
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DCR has just announced they will be repaving and repairing the section of the Charles River Greenway in Waltham from Elm Street to Farwell Street. The path will be closed for 2 weeks for the work.
 
matredsoxfan said:
DCR has just announced they will be repaving and repairing the section of the Charles River Greenway in Waltham from Elm Street to Farwell Street. The path will be closed for 2 weeks for the work.
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FYI this work started today. Crews were grinding the path between Elm & Newton St this morning
 
The City of Waltham has awarded a contract for $409,310 for the design of the 3-mile section of the Wayside Rail Trail in the city. This is a milestone and is a very long time coming.
 
matredsoxfan said:
The City of Waltham has awarded a contract for $409,310 for the design of the 3-mile section of the Wayside Rail Trail in the city. This is a milestone and is a very long time coming.
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And part of the larger (potentially statewide) Mass Central RR...Will it cross 128 on the Mass Central's bridge by the junk yard?

(Struggled to find a diagram in the hundred-page document here:
http://www.city.waltham.ma.us/purch...component-for-the-design-of-the-wayside-trail
 
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