Rail Trail Committee Focuses Consulting Budget on Abutters, Parking Access

WESTON — December 6, 2017 — Weston's Rail Trail Advisory Committee narrowed its $73,000 consulting contract to focus on abutter screening and parking access, while deferring broader urban-planning work. At the December 6 meeting, the committee voted to direct Richard Buck Associates to design plantings and fencing for vulnerable abutter locations along the corridor, and to direct Niche Engineering to design parking access at the former rail station and Concord Road — reserving roughly $20,000 allocated to urban planning firm UTIL for later phases. Member Paul reported that Eversource had fenced off four contamination sites along the corridor where arsenic levels exceeded state thresholds, and said he would contact senior Eversource official Denise Bartone to determine how remediation outside the trail treadway might affect traditional uses such as horseback riding and cross-country skiing. The committee also unanimously elected member Mark as its new chair, replacing the outgoing chair who cited business and personal reasons, and noted that the paving contractor J.H. Lynch had not yet signed a contract with DCR, leaving portions of the corridor in Wayland and Weston likely to overwinter on rough gravel.