Chelmsford – Music of the Chelmsford Community Band Jazz Ensemble bellowed over the excited chatter of more than 200 people gathered on the second floor of Old Town Hall. Saturday, Aug. 29, marked the long-awaited (20-plus years) official opening of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail, BFRT.

Eighteen board members of the Friends of the BFRT and more than 40 volunteers oversaw the festivities, which included speeches, attendance of Westford’s Boy Scout Troop 759 and the Honor Guard, booths for non-profit organizations, a rail trail “ticket” self-guided historic tour, and an afternoon cookout at Agway.
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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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