MethuenRailTrail

Phase one of rail trail to open Sat.
Boston Globe. August 27, 2009

After nearly 25 years of planning, funding constraints, environmental obstacles, and privacy concerns among abutters, the first phase of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail will officially open Saturday.

The 6.8-mile, 10-foot-wide paved trail, which traverses woods, wetlands, open fields, and shopping areas, starts at the Cross Point Towers in Lowell, goes through Chelmsford, and ends at Route 225 in Westford. It cost $4.8 million in state and federal funds to build.

“I never gave up on it, but I really wondered if I’d be here to see this,’’ said 84-year-old Daphne Freeman, widow of Bruce Freeman, a former state representative from Chelmsford.

Bruce Freeman started researching the idea for a bike path in 1985 after seeing one in California. He died in 1986 before the project got off the ground.

The northern phase, which took two years to build and was funded with state and federal funds, is just the beginning of a 25-mile trail along former railroad routes that will go from Lowell through Chelmsford, Westford, Carlisle, Acton, Concord, and Sudbury, and end in Framingham.

“I think it’s such a happy thing,’’ Daphne Freeman said. “It’s good for people’s health, it’s safe, and it’s good for the environment.’’

Freeman and her family will attend Saturday’s ribbon cutting, which will be held at 10 a.m. at the Old Town Hall in Chelmsford center. An opening celebration on the town common will follow.

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Tags: Bruce Freeman Rail Trail, Chelmsford