LYNNFIELD — The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) is currently reviewing the town’s 75 percent submittal for Phase 1 of the Wakefield-Lynnfield Rail Trail
The rail trail will connect both Lynnfield and Wakefield via the abandoned MBTA rail bed. The Lynnfield section of the rail trail will consist of a 2.8-mile multiuse path and boardwalk that will extend from Fosters Lane in Wakefield, go through Lynnfield and will end at Nichols Lane in Peabody. The Wakefield section will extend an additional 1.6 miles from Fosters Lane to the Galvin Middle School. A portion of the rail trail will go through Reedy Meadow via an elevated boardwalk.
The rail trail’s MassDOT project number for Phase 1 is 613163. MassDOT’s comments are due back in mid-October. The 100 percent design of Phase 1 is scheduled to be submitted to MassDOT in late January 2025.
Phase 2 of the Rail Trail has received MassDOT approval of Project Need and Project Scope under a new MassDOT project number 613867.
“Both phases of the project will be reviewed at MassDOT’s Project Review Committee meeting on Sept. 26, 2024,” DPW Director John Scenna wrote in a post on the town website. “The town is hopeful that recent progress on the Phase 1 design will demonstrate project ‘readiness’ for construction of Phase 1 starting in fiscal year 2026.”
Scenna said, “The town’s rail trail team intends to provide a formal update on the status of the project to the Select Board at its Sept. 23, 2024 meeting.”
