Sudbury Rail Trail Hearing Set For Thursday

SUDBURY, MA — An important milestone for extending the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail through Sudbury will happen on Thursday. MassDOT will host a public hearing for a design of the multi-use pathway, which will eventually stretch from Concord south to near Route 20.

The Bruce Freeman Rail Trail (BFRT) is an approximately 25-mile multipurpose pathway that, right now, stretches from Lowell to Concord. But plans for the trail have it extending all the way to Route 9 in Framingham, including about 5 miles through Sudbury.

The $13.4 million project will be paid for through the Boston Metropolitan Planning Organization Transportation Improvement Program, a group that federal and state transportation funds. The trail in Sudbury will be a 10-foot wide path with bridges over some bodies of water, and construction could begin in 2023.

The MassDOT hearing on Thursday will review a proposed design for a 5.1-mile stretch of trail, with about 4.4 miles of that in Sudbury alone.

"The MassDOT DPH on July 16 is a significant milestone in the project development process, during which MassDOT and the design consultants present the project to the community and seek public comment," Sudbury Select Board member Janie Dretler wrote in the board's newsletter this week.

Sudbury is also in talks to purchase a 1.4-mile stretch of unused railroad right-of-way south of Route 20 to connect the trail to Framingham.