WESTFIELD – Mayor Daniel M. Knapik announced last week that work has been initiated to extend the Columbia Greenway from the south bank of Little River to the East Silver Street area.
Work on the final section of phase 1 of the Columbia Greenway project, extending the rail trail from the Southwick line to East Silver Street, has been initiated, funded by a $2 million state grant from the Executive Office of Energy and Environment.
The contractor, ET&L Construction of Stow, was recently given the order to proceed with the work and currently has staged equipment near Tin Bridge over Little River to aid in the assessment of two bridges, one over Little River which will be refurbished and the second over South Meadow Road which will be removed and replaced.
City Engineer Mark Cressotti said yesterday that the Columbia Greenway announcement was made to inform residents and businesses that crews will be working on that section of the trail, extending it to the area of East Silver Street and completing the South Phase of the rail trail project.
“I am very pleased that we have received the final go-ahead on this exciting phase of the Columbia Greenway project,” Knapik said. “With the installation of the bridge over Little River, the Greenway will provide a vital connection between our downtown and points south, including several Westfield neighborhoods and our neighbors in Southwick and beyond.”
The Columbia Greenway project was broken into phases because of its expense, basically due to its unique feature of being one of the rare raised rail trails in the entire country. The original New Haven/Northampton railroad line was raised to pass through the city, with construction of nine bridges.
Two of those bridges span rivers, while the other seven cross above city streets including South Meadow Road, East Silver Street, Main Street, Thomas Street, Chapel Street. Elm Street and Orange Street.
The Main Street bridge was removed as part of the downtown road improvements and will be replaced as part of the center Columbia Greenway phase. The East Silver Street, Thomas Street and Chapel Street and Orange Street bridges will also be removed and replaced, with greater clearance, as part of that phase. The Elm Street span will remain, but will be raised to better comply with the height standards of the state and federal governments.
The bridge over the Westfield River will be involved in construction of the north phase of the Greenway project and work is projected to start on the trail section, linking the trail to Women’s Temperance Park on the north bank of the river.
The work is currently budget for $2.2 million in the state’s Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), while the current engineering estimate to rehabilitate the former railroad bridge over the Westfield River is $2.8 million. The project can proceed under the $2.2 million or be delayed for up to three years until additional funding becomes available.
Knapik said that initially the northern section would be completed before the central, but that schedule may flip based upon availability of funding.
The next challenge will be linking the rail trail, which extends more than 22 miles down into Connecticut along the Farmington River Greenway, with miles of track in place from Easthampton to Belchertown. Southampton is currently seeking to acquire the former rail bed to extend that trail system further south to the Westfield city line.
The challenge of extending the trail in Westfield, north of the Westfield River, is that the track is still active and used by the Pioneer Valley Railroad to supply materials and fuel to a number of businesses in Westfield and Holyoke.
“We’ll find some way to bridge that gap,” Cressotti said. “Miracles do happen.”
