Harvard has kicked off what is likely to be a years-long collaborative project with environmental planners at Devens and other stakeholders to create a system of pedestrian and bicycle paths that will eventually connect Harvard—including its town center—to trails in Devens, Ayer, and Shirley. But a grant application for Harvard’s portion of the project, a connecting path on Old Mill Road, won’t be submitted to the MassTrails grant program until February 2023.
The connection requires significant engineering, construction, and permitting, because it would pass underneath a railroad trestle and cross a seasonal stream onto the Red Tail golf course. Getting the connector built will require buy-in from Harvard, the Army, the Red Tail golf course, MassDevelopment, and the railway.
A Feb. 16 meeting hosted by Harvard’s Transportation Advisory Committee, billed as a “public discussion,” drew nearly 40 participants, many from Old Mill Road. The committee is acting on a goal in the 2016 Master Plan to establish safe, non-vehicular pathways in town and to nearby towns, to connect to existing recreational trails, and to access nearby MBTA stations. “This is not something we conjured up on our own,” said Harvard’s director of community and economic development Chris Ryan in introductory remarks.
The connector is to be one part of a more comprehensive system of trails, roads, sidewalks, and bike lanes—some that already exist, and some in the planning stages. The goal, according to environmental planner Neil Angus of the Devens Enterprise Commission, is for the connector to create a system of trails from Old Mill Road to Patton Road, to the Barnum Road sidewalks and bike paths, and from there to several other trails in Devens, including Cold Spring Brook and Robbins Pond trails. Angus, who is coordinating the Devens side of the project, also told the Press this week that with the cooperation of Ayer and Shirley, the system of paths, sidewalks, and bike lanes would, in time, link to the Nashua River Rail Trail’s trailhead in Ayer, and to the Ayer and Shirley MBTA stations.
Wyatt Holt, a 20-year teacher at Bromfield, spoke up at the Feb. 16 meeting to say he would welcome a biking connection that could allow him to ride his bike to work from his home in Shirley; avoiding Ayer Road was a priority, he said. Plans for the renovation of Ayer Road include bike lanes, but work will not begin until 2026 at the earliest, according to Department of Public Works Director Tim Kilhart.
Also weighing in was Jim Boutelle, one of several Old Mill Road residents who spoke up during the one-hour meeting. His one fear, he said, was that Old Mill Road would become a “driving destination” where people would park their cars. Bruce Leicher, chair of the Transportation Advisory Committee, said a parking area would not be built; a previous plan that included parking had been discarded, he said. Later, in response to a similar concern from Scott Winter, Leicher said he thought most people would be biking or walking to Old Mill from the Depot Road trail, which runs along the railroad tracks on the north side of Route 2. “This is a connection, it is not a destination, it’s not a trailhead,” Angus told Scott Grossman, who also feared “a parade of folks coming through our backyard.” Several participants observed that the Depot Road trail was often overgrown, prompting Leicher to say the committee would be requesting money to maintain the trail regularly.
To learn more about the Feb. 16 presentation, go to www.harvard-ma.gov/planning-board, and from the list of documents in the green box, click on “Old Mill Trail Connection Project.”
