“In 1996 when I got started with this thing, my children were four and five years old. Now their children are one and four,” stated Steve Kelleher chairman of the Mattapoisett Bike Path Committee. Time does slip into the future.
Kelleher remembered that he had read a magazine article that spoke to a state bill that would mandate 10% of state Department of Transportation spending be allocated for recreational pathways, aka, bike paths. Armed with this information, he approached the then-seated Board of Selectmen about establishing a bike-path committee.
Kelleher’s thinking at the time was that DOT monies would be available for the construction of a bike path on the railroad easement. Thus began the long and winding road that included decades of meetings, decades of planning and decades of grant writing in cooperation with the Mattapoisett Friends of the Bike Path.
Today Kelleher and company are high-fiving.
The most difficult phase, in terms of engineering, dubbed the Shining Tides Bike Path or Phase 1b, was opened to the public on April 28 after nearly two years of delays. Without fanfare but with a simple turn of a key in a padlock, the gates were opened. Select Board member Jordan Collyer has promised an official ceremonial opening planned for late May.
Some of those delays can be chalked up to COVID-19 shutdowns and pandemic spread, but a months-long delay can also be directly attributed to engineering decisions that trimmed dollars off the state-funded project with the installation of planking not previously vetted with the town. Problems with the planking were brought to the attention of the Select Board by a resident with engineering chops. Upon further review, the planking was found to be defective.
As reported by The Wanderer in November 2020, Planning Board Administrator Mike Gagne explained the series of events that led several community members with professional engineering backgrounds to contact Town Administrator Mike Lorenco with their concerns. Without a satisfactory response, Lorenco went from MassDOT to Representative Bill Straus for assistance.
Gagne reported that the planking used between the Goodspeed Island beach spanning over the Eel Pond breach was of different material than that used in other locations. “The planks are warping and the laminated material is splitting,” he stated, later explaining that MassDOT had looked for “alternative analysis” (cost-saving measures) but with Straus’ intervention, the state planned to bring in a third-party engineer to evaluate and determine if the planks could be saved.
The planking from Reservation Road to Mattapoisett Neck Road was a more costly variety of mahogany, whereas the planks used in the beach span were laminated pine, said Gagne.
It appeared that the project had come to a standstill. The Select Board, in partnership with Straus, was in frequent contact with the DOT. The pandemic continued to plague the project as workers became ill. Volatile comments posted on Facebook group pages prompted Collyer to state at a recent public meeting, “This won’t solve anything.”
Material issues were resolved to the town’s satisfaction, but achieving a Memorandum of Understanding between the town and the state resulted in more delay. Collyer became the Select Board’s point person in finding verbiage that would indemnify the town from financial responsibility for the boardwalk’s material replacement or other maintenance up to 20 years.
During their April 27 meeting, Collyer announced a meeting of the minds had been achieved. “We worked with Representative Straus, the town’s administrator, and MassDOT … now the town won’t have to worry,” he said.
The price tag for the Shining Tides section hovers around $7,000,000.
Now all vested parties can turn their full attention to Phases 2a and 2b. Kelleher said there will be challenges, primarily in engineering a project that protects neighboring private property owners along the railroad easement from Railroad Avenue through the Park Street neighborhood and entering the state’s park-and-ride area on North Street. Two difficult crossings, one at Railroad Avenue and another at North Street, are high on the list for careful planning.
But Kelleher said that the Marion connector (at the end of Industrial Drive) was completed with money supplied from the Friends group and a state grant and that Phase 2b design work of Industrial Drive, that including a bike lane, has already been designed, leaving Phase 2a.
In the meantime, people are flocking to the newly opened Shining Tides pathway. Even on a recent windy, stormy day, smiling faces walked or rode along, taking in the vistas offered from an elevated boardwalk across barrier beaches.
By Marilou Newell