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DMala t1_iy2bne5 wrote

Reply to comment by shaffan33 in Progress on the Mass Central Rail Trail in Waltham. Ultimately will connect Boston to Northampton by Exit_127

Not that a second option wouldn't be fantastic, but you can already go from Waltham to Boston on the Charles River trails and almost never touch a road except for crossings.

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rocketwidget t1_iy3n0ns wrote

I love the Charles River trail and use it all the time, but as the MCRT is built in in Waltham, Belmont, Wayland, Sudbury, and Hudson, it will connect to the Minuteman, the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail, the Assabet River Rail trail, the Watertown-Cambridge Greenway, the Northern Strand (Bike to the Sea), the Charles River, etc.

It's uniquely going to be a bike network hub.

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Master_Dogs t1_iy42bfm wrote

The Charles River stuff basically connects to the Watertown Greenway too (using either Kingston Ave or the nice connector path here), so it could really provide a nice way for someone in Belmont to reach Harvard without touching a City street.

Hopefully one day they extend / improve the Charles River stuff too. No reason it couldn't go past Waltham towards Newton. Just a matter of routing and acquiring or dedicating some ROW to it.

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rocketwidget t1_iy45c9v wrote

The Newton improvements might be in the works. First, in Waltham at the Woerd Ave trail end, there's a low stress road connection to the Auburndale Park Path in Newton, going to Comm Ave.

From there, there's a series of projects in the works in the planning stages at least, though, hurry up and wait...

https://www.solomonfoundation.org/projects/riverside-greenway/

I know pedestrian improvements crossing Comm were recently funded by Newton/MA for starters, and one of the next steps, the rebuild of the pedestrian Boathouse bridge over the Charles, is funded by MA for construction in the next few years.

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