Tri-Community Bikeway/Greenway Meeting

Location(s)

A public information session will be held next Wednesday, June 25, at 7 p.m. in Winchester Town Hall to discuss the proposed Tri-Community Bikeway/Greenway, a six-mile recreational path designed to extend throughout the towns of Woburn, Stoneham, and Winchester.

The idea is to connect parks, recreational areas, historical sites and schools with a trail that can be used for walkers, runners, and bikers.

The project will be funded 100 percent by the state Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), and is estimated by the Executive Office of Transportation, to cost approximately $5.5 million. About $4.4 million of that money would come from the federal government and another $1.1 million from the state.

The project is currently in the design phase, which is part of the reason for the public meeting next week. Feedback gathered from the community during the meeting will be used to shape the development in the future.

The idea for the greenway was first hatched in Winchester in the mid-1990s. The community subsequently began coordinating with Stoneham and Woburn to broaden the scope of the project.

“In the mid-1990s, Winchester resident Jill Behrens did a graduate thesis on the Winchester Greenway and opportunities for its restoration and improvement,” wrote Chairman of the Winchester Greenway Committee Jamie Fosburgh, in an e-mail. “At the same time, Stoneham residents were active in promoting conversion of the abandoned rail line paralleling Montvale Avenue into a multi-use recreation path. The Tri-Community Bikeway became a natural convergence of these efforts, beginning in 1997.”

According to information from the town, the trail would comprise “a relatively uninterrupted” piece of land, which forms the “central spine” of the bikeway in Winchester along the Aberjona River. Part of the trail also extends along horn Pond Brook towards Woburn.

It was in 1999 that the three towns ultimately collaborated on the design and construction of the trail.

A preliminary map of the proposed project shows the bikeway extending from Calvary Cemetery, south to the Wedgemere Train Station. An offshoot of the main trail extends westward from the Winchester High School toward the Lynch School.

The Wednesday meeting will be held in the Winchester Room on the first floor of Wincheseter Town Hall.