On Friday Oct 25, at 1 PM, there will be a ceremonial ground-breaking for the Upper Falls Greenway at Oak and Chestnut St. The mayor will be there, Richard Davey the state’s Secretary of Transportation, our local aldermen, Area Councillors and various other dignitaries. Iron Horse Preservation will also be there with their rail removal equipment. Once the formalities, the handshakes, and the photos are dispensed with, the real fun will begin.
The Newton Bicycle Pedestrian Task Force (aka Newton Bike/Ped) are the ones who first dreamed up the idea for the Upper Falls Greenway. The folks at Newton Bike/Ped have contacted hobbyists that have small rail riding vehicles. They’re going to bring two of these rail-riders to Upper Falls for the day and the public will be invited to take the final ride on this mile of track just before it’s torn up to make way for the Upper Falls Greenway, our new mile long walking/jogging/biking trail and park. So come on down and ride the rails and enjoy green tea on the Greenway, and maybe a bowl of egg drop soup courtesy of Taam China II, Upper Falls’ neighborhood kosher Chinese restaurant.
The graphic above is the new official Upper Falls Greenway logo that will be used on all the signs, etc. The logo was designed by Newton resident Heidi Werner. Heidi volunteered to design the logo for the recent Tour de Newton. She did such a great job with that that we begged her to also design the logo for the Greenway. Many thanks to Heidi for her pro bono, pro Newton work. Now if you’ve got some paying graphics work and need a top shelf graphic designer – Heidi Werner’s your woman.
Can’t wait! Very excited to see this project finally come to fruition.
@JenAK – like you, I can’t wait for it to FINALLY come to fruition. For somebody with my limited attention span, two years does seems like forever. The more I’ve learned as this project has unfolded, the more I’ve found that two years is nearly an unheard of speed for a town to do a project like this.
Once the public meeting was held in Upper Falls about a year and half ago, the city went “all in” on the project. The Area Council have been hugely supportive of the project. The aldermen (especially our local Ward 5 ones) rallied around it and quickly took the necessary votes, the mayor set up a working group chaired by the Bob Rooney, the city’s Chief Operating Officer, with senior representatives from all the related departments (Engineering, Parks & Rec, Legal). All sorts of regulatory, legal and practical hurdles were dispatched pretty quickly.
I spoke with Joe Hattrup, the head of Iron Horse Preservation this morning down at the railway. His crew just arrived there today. He’s been working with many towns around MA in recent years on similar projects. He said that “Newton did everything right and really had it’s act together on this project”.
Our neighbors down the railroad (Needham, Dover and Medfield) are working on similar projects that started at the same time but they are probably all still years away from getting them built, which is much more typical.
So even though two years seems like forever to you and me I think our city government nearly set records for doing this project quickly and efficiently … and I can’t wait to see it completed.
Mazel tov on a job well done and something that will be a great benefit. Love the logo!
Jerry Reilly — Wow, that’s a big time accomplishment. Congratulations.
Now, those cars under the link in your post look like they must have engines (notice the lights and wipers which in themselves need a power source). Are they really “self propelled”?
Maybe “self-propelled” was a confusing term. Yes, they’re little rail riding cars with small engines.
Oh, I thought they were going to be the ones where two people push the seesaw handle thing up and down. 🙁 That would have been fun!
@julia -I wish
Come on down at 1PM for The Final Ride on the rails before they’re pulled up to make way for the Upper Falls Greenway.