August 2018: The Maynard and Acton sections were officialy opened August 10, 2018. The Maynard trail parking lot on Winter street is now open.
January 25, 2007: The RFP (Request for Proposals) for the 100% design of the Maynard-Acton ARRT project was posted on the state web site. A meeting for prospective bidders was well attended and the preliminary bids are due March 1, 2007. May 2006: 25% design is finished and submitted to MassHighway. The plans are posted here. (update: 25% design approved by MassHighway 10/26/06) October 2005: EarthTech awarded the contract to do the 25% design phase of the 'southern' section of the trail in Maynard. November 2004: The Town of Maynard has applied to modify an existing 2001 PWED grant, to allow some unspent funds ($580,920) to be used to design and build the section of the bike trail in downtown Maynard. October 2004: ARRT volunteers completed a 12 month effort to clear and place woodchips on two sections of the trail, each 1000 feet in length. Assistance was provided by an Eagle scout project. The woodchips create an interim walking path, until the final bike path is built. April 2004: Maynard has applied for a $20,000 state recreational trails grant, to design and build the southern 1/3 of the trail in Maynard. Some of the local match funds for this grant will come from a recent corporate donation. June 26, 2003: The Town of Maynard closed on the property purchase of the Maynard Sand and Gravel property. Included in the 6+ acres of conservation land will be 3200 feet of the trail right of way, leading down to the Maynard-Stow border. A ribbon cutting event is planned for sometime in the summer and an ARRT sponsored cleanup in the fall. April 25, 2003: The long abandoned Cocco building at the corner of Summer and Nason streets was torn down, to make way for the new MacDonald Development 22-unit apartment building. The building will be located next to the rail trail path, which is on the left side of each of the above photos. With the ARRT's approval, the town sold a small slice of the old RR right-of-way to the builder in 2002, so that they would have enough room for the required fire lane. The rail trail and the apartment building have a 175-foot long granite block wall between them, that is to be protected and preserved by the town. January 14, 2003: At the January 14th Maynard Board of Selectmen meeting, Assabet River Rail Trail volunteers and the Intel Corporation presented a $1,000 grant to the Town of Maynard. The donation will be used for expenses related to trail right-of-way acquisitions in Maynard. October 28, 2002: Article 5 on the Maynard Special Town Meeting warrant was passed. This was to increase the level of borrowing to allow the town to accept more state grant funds to acquire two parcels for the Assabet River Rail Trail. These parcels covered the ROW running from Rt. 117, through the woods, to White Pond Rd at the Stow border. This article was designed to allow the town to increase its borrowing over what was already authorized at Town Meeting in 1998. September 2002: The Town of Maynard completed the acquisition of the trail right-of-way (ROW) that was privately owned by Emerald Acres Landscaping. When combined with property acquired 20 years ago, the town now owns the entire 1000 feet of trail bed from Summer Street to Concord Street. July 11, 2000: The ARRT was incorporated as "ARRT Inc.", a Massachusetts registered non-profit organization. June 2000: Marlborough and the other 4 commmunities issued a RFP to hire a consultant to prepare an up-to-date ARRT Master Plan. The plan would look at all the various ARRT segments, refine the proposed trail alignment, identify how all the pieces fit into the bigger picture, develop cost estimates, and detail a phasing plan from now until the completion of the entire ARRT. May 4, 1998: Maynard Town Meeting votes to approve the warrant supporting the proposed Assabet River Rail Trail. The warrant passed by a substantial margin and authorized short-term borrowing for the reimbursable funds for acquisition of the ARRT right-of-way in Maynard and appropriation of the town’s 10% local match, as required by the federal ISTEA grant that ARRT received last fall. April 1998: The ARRT received a grant of $3,000 from the Department of Environmental Management's Greenways and Trails Demonstration Grant program. The grant was used to conduct a natural resource inventory and assessment of the proposed ARRT route. December 1997: The federal government approved $17 million in funding for transportation enhancements in Massachusetts, which included the grant proposal submitted by the five ARRT communities to aquire the legal rights to the ARRT route. May 1997: The Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) recommended that the Assabet River Rail Trail receive funding in fiscal year 1998 to begin acquiring portions of the ROW, and to begin design of the segment of trail in Marlborough and Hudson. In a grant proposal submitted by the five ARRT towns, the towns would receive $668,000 to acquire the legal rights for the continuous 12.5-mile right of way. |