The Upper Falls Greenway is a plan to convert the abandoned railroad line behind Needham Street into a mile long walking/jogging/bicycle trail – aka a linear park.
The plan has been in the works for the last two years but its all coming together with construction salted to begin in mid-October.
- The Newton Conservation Commission has signed off on the project
- The NStar construction at the National Lumber end of the Greenway route has been completed
- The city has submitted the request for the lease to the MBTA and it should be signed within a few weeks
- The city’s engineering department has completed a fine design for the Greenway’s main entrance beside The Depot (Chestnut & Oak Streets).
- * The Chestnut Grove condo association’s concerns have been addressed.
- * Iron Horse Preservation, the non-profit that will remove the tracks and build the trail, has construction scheduled to start in mid-October.
A recent interesting development is that the city has an agreement with the property owner to also allow Iron Horse to remove the rails on the spur line that runs from the main Greenway route out to Needham St. Many details still remain before that spur can become part of the Greenway, but that’s a very important first step.
Nice! Shame it won’t be done in time for this year’s Tour De Newton, though I am sure it will be a feature for next year! (providing we do another tour)
The Upper Falls stop on the Tour de Newton will be at the future entrance to the Upper Falls Greenway, right beside the Depot. We’ll have a big banner up for the occasion.
Yes, next year we’ll definitely have to include the Greenway in the route because this is definitely the first annual Tour. We have high hopes that this will be come a signature event for the city in years to come.
Kudos to Jerry [and I bunch of others that I can’t cite] for pushing hard to get this to happen. This was by no stretch of the imagination a slam dunk.
@Dan Fahey –
Jim Lerner and George Kirby from the Newton Bicycle Pedestrian Task Force are the real behind-the-scenes folks that got this whole thing going. They sometimes get lost in the shuffle since I’m such a ham and you can’t shut me up 🙂
I knew there were others, and i also knew you would be happy to cite them. But I just didn’t know who they were/are. So thanks.