Which corner of Belmont will notice the community path first? Belmont Center will notice less than the stretch of Channing Road where Alexander Avenue meets the tracks. That is where a new concrete tunnel will go under the Fitchburg commuter rail line, and where state designers expect a neighborhood street to lose its access for a while.
That stage is close. MassDOT set Tuesday, November 10, 2026, at 2:00 p.m. as the deadline for electronic bids on "Community Path, Belmont Component of the MCRT (Phase I)," with a listed project value of $35,864,000. The notice says the date is subject to change. Once a contractor is chosen, the town's work on Phase 1 is mostly finished. From then on, the project is a state construction job concentrated at a handful of known locations.
What the bid deadline hands over
Belmont spent years doing the parts of this project that a town has to do itself. In August, Select Board member Matt Taylor told The Belmont Voice that the board's final land votes were "the last major milestone before it really becomes a state project and then the state takes over." In the same report, he said the state would pick a winning bidder in late fall or early winter.
The money is split the same way. Construction is paid entirely with state and federal funds through the state's Transportation Improvement Program. Design and right-of-way acquisition were the town's responsibility, according to Community Path Committee Chair Holly Muson in the Voice's account. The notice limits bidding to firms MassDOT has prequalified in highway or bridge construction. That fits a job built around a tunnel under active rail.
As for timing, the Belmont Citizens Forum wrote in a September letter in the Voice that Phase 1 is "poised to break ground in 2027." In 2024, the Voice reported that MassDOT aimed to complete Phase 1 by 2029. That target is from two years ago and was set before bidding.
How the town got here, and what it cost
The groundwork started long before the engineering. In 2008, the Belmont Citizens Forum bought a 3,558.7-foot-long, 30-foot-wide strip of former Central Massachusetts Railroad land just north of the Fitchburg line tracks. The Forum expected it to serve as right-of-way for a path from Belmont Center to the Fitchburg Cutoff Path at Brighton Street. The Select Board appointed a study committee in 2012. In August 2026, the board accepted the parcel as a donation, as the Forum had always intended. The town hired Nitsch Engineering to design the path in 2019. Nitsch submitted the 100% design to MassDOT on December 18, 2025, and MassDOT has completed its review.
Most of the land was already public. Taylor said school, state, and town land, including the Forum's parcel, makes up 95% of what Phase 1 needs. Officials described the August votes as securing the "last 5%." The five votes made all of the land rights official, the public pieces as well as the private ones. They covered a 99-year MBTA lease, permanent and temporary easements on private property, formal acceptance of the Forum's donation, a license to use Department of Conservation and Recreation property, and votes to use town land.
For the private easements, appraisals were finished in early July, and compensation letters went to property owners on July 9. Belmont did not set the amounts. An independent appraisal firm determined them, and a second firm peer reviewed the figures. Both were paid for with part of a $475,000 MassTrails grant, and Town Meeting matched that grant with $160,000 in Community Preservation Act money.
The final bill came in below the cautious estimate. Town Meeting had authorized about $1.3 million in free cash for easement costs. In October, Chief Financial Officer Geoffrey Lubien told the Voice that existing CPA and grant funds would cover the payments, so the $1.3 million is going back to the general fund. He also said appraisals can be appealed for up to three years, so the town could need more money later. Owners with an easement question should talk to their own attorney. This post is general information, not legal or financial advice.
Where the 1.15 miles meet the street
According to the 75% design plans, Phase 1 runs 6,090 feet, or 1.153 miles. It goes from the Fitchburg Cutoff Path at the Cambridge line to the Clark Street bridge. In between, the path stays beside the rail line, so it crosses Belmont's street grid only where streets reach the tracks. MassDOT's March 2024 design hearing named four access points and described what drivers should expect at each one during construction.
| Access point | During construction, per the 2024 hearing | After construction |
|---|---|---|
| Brighton Street | Temporary traffic impacts | New traffic signal at the Brighton Street, community path, and railroad crossing; link to the Fitchburg Cutoff Path toward Alewife |
| Channing Road | Temporary traffic impacts; access to Alexander Avenue from Channing Road blocked while the underpass is built | Path access plus a tunnel connection to the Belmont High and Middle School campus |
| Concord Avenue | Temporary traffic impacts | Path access |
| Pleasant Street | Temporary traffic impacts | Path access at the western end near the Clark Street bridge |
Existing pedestrian and bicycle routes are planned to stay open and be separated from work zones, with police details used as needed near construction. The east end connects to something that already exists. The Fitchburg Cutoff Path already runs to the Alewife MBTA station, so Phase 1 will link Belmont to it.
The tunnel at Alexander Avenue is the main event
Most of the path is a paved shared-use trail beside the commuter rail. The heavier work is a new concrete underpass beneath the tracks at Alexander Avenue, linking Channing Road to the Belmont High and Middle Schools. It is also the only part of the project expected to cut off a street. Access to Alexander Avenue from Channing Road will be blocked while the underpass is built.
The underpass got extra engineering attention late in design. After crews collected additional field data the week of January 5, 2026, the Nitsch team moved on to a second structural submission for the crossing. The connection matters most to people who live south of the tracks. The Belmont Citizens Forum letter says the path will connect "hundreds of children in Winnbrook and other neighborhoods directly to the Middle-High School."
What the contract promises the neighbors
In his August presentation to the Select Board, as reported by the Voice, Taylor described commitments made to property owners:
- The contractor is required to "protect and restore property."
- The town will pay for rodent control around the tunnel construction under the tracks.
- A resident engineer will be hired as the project's point of contact, and the cost is included in the contractor's state contract.
For Channing Road, Alexander Avenue, and the streets around the four access points, these are the commitments that matter once crews arrive. Project updates are posted at belmontcommunitypath.com, along with the right-of-way plans MassDOT approved for acquisition.
West of Clark Street, the next mile
Phase 1 ends at the Clark Street bridge, and the town is already working on what comes next. Belmont's FY2027 Community Preservation application for Phase 2 design requested $250,000 to unlock a $1 million federal design earmark. Phase 2 is a proposed route of about one mile, from the Clark Street pedestrian bridge on the Pleasant Street side to the Mass Central Rail Trail in Waltham, just past MBTA Waverley Station. The application describes it as a connection for Waverley Square, Waltham, and points west.
With both phases built, Belmont would fill a two-mile gap in the Mass Central Rail Trail, which is planned to run 104 miles from Boston to Northampton. The Forum's letter names the towns farther west along the Wayside Rail Trail: Waltham, Weston, Wayland, Sudbury, Hudson, and Berlin. Closer to home, the next date to watch is MassDOT's contract award, which Taylor expects in late fall or early winter.
If you own a home near the Fitchburg line and want to talk about how the path, its access points, or the years of construction could affect the way your property is presented, I'm glad to walk the street with you and give you a local perspective. Arman Chitchian works with Belmont homeowners on questions like this. Let's Connect.
