Sudbury has finished the 25% design phase for its southern portion of the Bruce Freeman Trail, Marsha Rasmussen, from the Sudbury Planning and Community Development Office told the Framingham Bicycle, Pedestrian & Trails Committee tonight. However, don’t expect to be biking it in the near future: She expects construction funding for that portion of the trail in fiscal year 2029._ Design might be completed in the 2026-27 time frame, she added.
The 25% design plan hasn’t been posted on the Sudbury town website yet, but should be sometime next week, she said.
Sudbury’s southern portion of the trail will extend from Rte. 20 about 200 feet into Framingham, in the area around Eaton Road West and Colonial Drive. There was a meeting with neighbors to hear concerns about traffic and drainage issues regarding the trail in April, and feedback was incorporated into the 25% design plan submitted to the state on June 20, she said.
Also at tonight’s meeting, Friends of Framingham Trails member Ron Chick said that improvements to the Carol Getchell Trail are “moving along.” Designs for upgrading the north and south sections of the trail are complete. “The RFP (request for proposals) is going to go out by the end of the month, and hopefully a contractor will be selected right after Labor Day, with the expectation that construction would begin soon thereafter,” he said. The final piece will be the middle section.
“As a reminder, this is Framingham’s section of the federally designated Wild and Scenic Sudbury River,” Chick said. “It’s going to be a very impressive trail that will be ADA accessible when phase three is complete.”
In addition, bidding for ecological restoration of a portion of the Cochituate Rail Trail near the beginning of the trail on School Street in Saxonville should be going out this month, he said. That work is being funded by a Community Preservation Act grant, as is some of the Getchell Trail work.
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