Advocates Celebrate Groundbreaking for Path Linking Watertown to Fresh Pond

People from Watertown and Cambridge gathered near Fresh Pond on a chilly morning to celebrate the beginning of construction of a path many years in the making that completes an important link between the Charles River to other path networks.

Wednesday’s groundbreaking for the Cambridge-Watertown Greenway Phase 2 came 35 years after a pair of Watertown residents began advocating for the path that can be used by bicyclists, walkers and runners to get from East Watertown to Fresh Pond and link up to other major bike and pedestrian paths.

The project will create a 16 foot wide, landscaped path along the former railroad bed from Fresh Pond to Arlington Street in Watertown. There it links to the first phase of the path, which goes from Arlington Street west to School Street. From there it is a short walk to the Charles River and the paths along the waterway. 

“The 1.25 mile path is a critical link from the Minuteman Commuter Bikeway to the Charles River,” said Leo Roy, commissioner of the Department of Conservation and Recreation. “People will be able to go from the Charles River to Western Mass.”

MassDOT Highway Administrator Jonathan Gulliver said one of the unusual features of the path is it will be nearly level and will have very few street crossings.

State Rep. Jonathan Hecht said he believes the path will be an important addition to the area. 

“I think it is going to be transformative not just for this area but for bike networks around the Metro area,” Hecht said. “It has taken a long, long time time and a lot of work. I am grateful to everyone who has taken part.”

The project has been on the mind of Watertown residents Deborah Peterson and Janet Jameson since the mid-1980s.

“There was an idea at the time called rails to trails,” Peterson said. “The Watertown Citizens for Environmental Safety took it on as a project.”

For most of the years that they worked on the project, the rail line still had trains on it. Jameson said they hoped to create a path, whether along side the rails, or in place of them. 

The biggest challenge, Peterson said, was to get the Boston & Maine Railroad (which was bought by Pan Am Railways) to sell the rail line. The first section opened in 2011, but the sale of the stretch from Arlington Street to Fresh Pond was not purchased by the City of Cambridge and the DCR until 2013.

Jameson said she looks forward to using the path. 

“When it opens up people can bike from Watertown to the markets (near Alewife) — Whole Foods and Trader Joes,” Jameson said. “And people from there can bike to the markets in Coolidge Square.”

Theys got a lot of support from State Sen. Warren Tolman and State Rep. Rachel Kaprielian when they represented Watertown. The project has been completed with the help of current legislators, Hecht and State Sen. Will Brownsberger.

Jameson and Peterson note there is still work to do to extend the far end of the Greenway through Watertown Square to the Community Path, which goes behind Town Hall and from Whites Avenue to Waverley Avenue.

Construction is expected to be completed by the spring of 2020, according to the MassDOT.

Along with the Watertown contingent, Cambridge State Sen. Pat Jehlen, Cambridge Mayor Marc McGovern and Vice Mayor Jan Devereux participated in the groundbreaking.