Neponset River Greenway
[September 1999]
[October 1999]
[November 1999]
[March 2000]
[May 2000]
[August 2000]
[October 2000]
[May 2001]
[October 2001]
[January 2002]
[July 2002]
[November 2002]
[March 2003]

Neponset River Trail: Will It Ever Open?

March 5, 2003
Now that the trail is paved, we are waiting for a opening ceremony. The Metropolitan District Commission, which owns the trail, is in disarray as the Romney administration tries to abolish it. One of the big questions in the state's reorganization is whether the Mass. Highway Department will get effectively all of the MDC's maintenance crews. If they do, who will maintain the parks and the Neponset Trail?

Plans are proceeding for the annual Neponset River Greenway Festival, which will kick off with an all-day event in Pope John Paul II Park on Saturday, June 28. With less support from the MDC and foundations which have previously donated, there will probably be fewer events in the festival, but we hope to have a good mix up and down the river.

But we have a trail, so we'll inaugurate it on Saturday, March 22, the second day of spring. We tried last November, but only four hardy souls showed up to ride the trail during a Nor'easter, so we will repeat that bike ride, leaving from from Castle Island concession stand (next to Fort Independence) in South Boston at 10:00 am and following the shore of the harbor south to the mouth of the Neponset. The Neponset Trail will then carry us under bridges and past busy streets (except for Granite Ave. where we await a traffic study to justify a bike/ped signal) to Central Ave. in Milton. Depending on time, weather, and rider energy, we might continue upstream to Mattapan and beyond, looking at future bikeway possibilities.

-Doug Mink, dmink@massbike.org
Neponset River Greenway Council
MassBike/MetroBoston