Route 9 Closing For Cochituate Rail Trail Bridge Raising

FRAMINGHAM, MA — An ongoing project to extend the Cochituate Rail Trail through Natick will soon cross a major milestone as construction crews prepare to raise truss bridges over Route 30 and Route 9 in the coming weeks.

Once complete, the trail will offer pedestrians and cyclists a 4-mile dedicated pathway between downtown Natick and Saxonville.

The bridge spanning Route 9 is set to be installed beginning at 10 p.m. Sunday, according to officials. Route 9 will be shut down until 5 a.m. Monday. Route 9 closed last December for one night so MassDOT crews could remove an old CSX rail bridge that crossed the roadway near Bernardi Honda.

The Route 30 crossing will likely happen on Nov. 1. The bridge raising was slightly delayed when crews discovered some components were damaged during delivery.

Nearly the entire pathway between downtown Natick and Route 30 has been graded, and crews are preparing to place the final course of asphalt by Nov. 9. Construction will likely end by early December, picking up again in the spring. Other work to be done includes landscaping and installing amenities like signs and benches.

A 1.4-mile section of the trail from Saxonville to Route 30 opened in 2015. The new portion of the trail will travel along an old CSX line along Lake Cochituate before heading toward downtown Natick just west of Route 27. The trail will also feature a spur near Chrysler Road that will travel to the Natick Mall.

The Cochituate Rail Trail expansion is one of several planned multi-use path projects going on in the area.

In Sudbury, there are two ongoing initiatives to extend the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail through the town from Concord to Framingham. In November, Sudbury voters will be asked to approve a key piece of that project — authorizing the town to spend $1.2 million to purchase a 1.4-mile stretch from Route 20 to Framingham.

There's also a more controversial proposal to extend the Mass Central Rail Trail across Sudbury as part of an Eversource project to use an abandoned railway to bury transmission lines. The Mass Central Rail Trail extends from near Russell's Garden Center in Wayland to Stony Brook in Waltham.

The Cochituate Rail Trail extension should open in 2021, according to officials.