Event 719

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The Board of Selectmen forms the Community Path Implementation Advisory Committee (CPIAC) to oversee a feasibility study of path routes identified by CPAC and earlier studies.

In June 2015, Belmont Town Meeting votes to appropriate $100,000 for a community path feasibility study. State Representative David Rogers and state Senator William Brownsberger secure another $100,000 from the state transportation budget for the study.

CPIAC selects the Pare Corporation and K3 Landscape Architecture team to perform the study. The Pare/ K3 Landscape Architecture team holds 10 public meetings in 2016 and 2017, submitting their Feasibility Study for the Belmont Path to CPIAC and the Board of Selectmen in November 2017. The feasibility study makes several innovative recommendations including:

A route along the north side of the Fitchburg Line from the Waltham border to Waverley Station, where a new “box-over” design would cover the tracks. The small existing park at the station could be expanded over the entire train platform, with the community path traversing the park between Lexington Street and Trapelo Road.

A route along the south side of the Fitchburg Line from Waverley to the Belmont Housing Authority (BHA) parking lot, leading to a new pedestrian/bicycle bridge crossing from behind the BHA building at 59 Pearson Road to the north side of the Fitchburg Line just west of the Clark Street Bridge

A route along the north side of the Fitchburg Line through Belmont Center and along the tracks behind Channing Road until Alexander Avenue, then crossing under the tracks to the south side, and crossing back to the north at Brighton Street

Meanwhile, the Fitchburg Line Improvement Project, a five-year, $306-million-dollar, federally funded project to improve service along the entire 53 mile line, involved extensive construction in Belmont. New track was laid from Belmont Center to Brighton Street, along with two new north-south track cross-overs, a new signaling system, three new signal houses on the south side of the tracks (abutting the high school property) and four new signal towers. The MBTA altered the location of one signal house to accommodate a possible future underpass at Alexander Avenue Extension based on input from the Belmont selectmen. The new signal houses limit the space for a path along the south side of the tracks.

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