Rail Trail and ROW
Back on March 30 2ndson asked the question.
"If not too much added difficulty, please include in your promised update later today any info on the rail trail/rt 12 easement, i.e. which wins?"
My response at the time,
"I wish I could give you a definitive answer but all inquirys I've made to find out the answer have gone unanswered. It is important to the Twin City Rail Trail that Mass Hwy not get an easement because the rail road ROW has to remain intact for the rail trail to proceed." was less than informative because it wasn't clear at the time.
At the public safety and public works committee meetings back on October 12, I asked for clarification on that. As I recall the response was that MassHwy would be getting an easement on the the RR ROW. I asked if MassHwy had contingency plans in the event the CSX decided to put the rail road line line back in and their response was that they had none. They also indicated that with the developments over the past year, specifically the asking price from CSX, they doubted the viability of the Rail Trail.
The change in design on Water St from the proposed 6 lanes to 4 lanes reduces the width of the easement needed for Rt 12. I beleive this leaves sufficient width for another easement for the rail trail. The new design guidelines released by MassHwy last December suggest that if the rail trail became a reality, the design might have to be modified to force trail users to cross at the Water St. and Bemis Road intersection and not just below the intersection on Bemis Road.
The bottom line is that neither MassHwy nor the Rail Trail proponents have considered the possiblility that CSX could take the land back for an actual rail use. This seems like poor planning on their part or perhaps something else is going on that we're not being kept informed of. Not neccessarily illegal but not being published in the media.
Still related to the rail trail the Sentinel and Enterprise reported that the Fitchburg Planning Board squeezed a $100,000 "donation" for the project from yet another developer.
"If not too much added difficulty, please include in your promised update later today any info on the rail trail/rt 12 easement, i.e. which wins?"
My response at the time,
"I wish I could give you a definitive answer but all inquirys I've made to find out the answer have gone unanswered. It is important to the Twin City Rail Trail that Mass Hwy not get an easement because the rail road ROW has to remain intact for the rail trail to proceed." was less than informative because it wasn't clear at the time.
At the public safety and public works committee meetings back on October 12, I asked for clarification on that. As I recall the response was that MassHwy would be getting an easement on the the RR ROW. I asked if MassHwy had contingency plans in the event the CSX decided to put the rail road line line back in and their response was that they had none. They also indicated that with the developments over the past year, specifically the asking price from CSX, they doubted the viability of the Rail Trail.
The change in design on Water St from the proposed 6 lanes to 4 lanes reduces the width of the easement needed for Rt 12. I beleive this leaves sufficient width for another easement for the rail trail. The new design guidelines released by MassHwy last December suggest that if the rail trail became a reality, the design might have to be modified to force trail users to cross at the Water St. and Bemis Road intersection and not just below the intersection on Bemis Road.
The bottom line is that neither MassHwy nor the Rail Trail proponents have considered the possiblility that CSX could take the land back for an actual rail use. This seems like poor planning on their part or perhaps something else is going on that we're not being kept informed of. Not neccessarily illegal but not being published in the media.
Still related to the rail trail the Sentinel and Enterprise reported that the Fitchburg Planning Board squeezed a $100,000 "donation" for the project from yet another developer.
posted by noway @ 10/07/2006 10:02:00 AM
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