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During the July 9 meeting of the Sudbury Rail Trails Advisory Committee, the public learned that top course paving on the Mass Central Rail Trail is pacing towards completion by the end of the summer. The top course, or surface course, is the top layer in a paved surface.
According to Sudbury’s Planning and Development Assistant, Marcia Rasmussen, while the top course paving could be complete in Sudbury by summer’s end, other features such as the curbing and other fixtures at the intersection with the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail could take a bit longer due to the nature of that work.
The latest three-week schedule is available below.
As construction of Sudbury’s two rail trails hums along, the Rail Trails Advisory Committee has turned its focus in recent meetings to trail connections from around Sudbury, as well as planning for additional amenities in the future. While the rail trails attract users from all over Sudbury, some of the routes to the new rail trails lack safe sidewalks or street shoulders for pedestrians and cyclists to get onto the rail trails.
Parking has been in high demand at the entrance to Chiswick Park, on Union Ave in Sudbury, as well as other parking areas that have already been built. The committee learned that the design process for widening the driveway to the parking area at the Parkinson Field property in Sudbury will get underway soon. If widening is deemed feasible, it would likely require construction funds to be appropriated at a later date.
On Wednesday the committee also discussed safety concerns about users on the Mass Central Rail Trail during active construction periods, including business hours on weekdays. The public is advised that the trail is still under construction. Safety concerns about road crossings continue to swirl as drivers and trail users acclimate to new conditions along Sudbury’s roads—though heavy use of the trails has also been cited as a positive indicator that the community is enthusiastically embracing the new trails.
