The Neponset River Greenway: A HistoryThe Neponset River forms Boston's southern border with Quincy and Milton. In addition to the mills left from its history as an industrial center, many scenic vistas remain.The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) MassParks owns much of the shoreline as the Neponset River Reservation. This includes an abandoned railway line which became the ISTEA-funded first segment of the Neponset Trail, a rail-trail from the mouth of the estuary at Tenean Beach in the Port Norfolk neighborhood of Dorchester, through the Pope John Paul II Park, along a salt marsh, then parallelling the "High Speed Line" trolley toward Mattapan as far as Central Ave. in Milton, part of the Lower Neponset River Masterplan. Pope John Paul II Park, next to the Southeast Expressway on the estuary of the river, which contains 1/4-mile of the Trail, opened on May 1, 2001. The rest of Phase I of the trail, downstream to Port Norfolk and upstream to Central Ave. in Milton, had to be cleared of contaminated soil which was found along much of the railroad right of way. Construction went out to bid in April 2001, bids were received by May 2, and construction started in September 2001. By January 2002, the trail was paved except for a stretch along the salt marsh. Paving of that segment, with a permeable pavement resembling crushed stone, was completed during the second week of October 2002. The last piece of this segment, a traffic light where the trail crosses Granite Ave., was completed by the fall of 2006. By 2015, the permeable pavement turned out not to be, and was replaced by asphalt, which actually drains pretty well, even after it is covered by high tide for a few hours more and more times a year.
On Earth Day 2008, Governor Patrick announced that construction would soon begin
on the "Neponset River Esplanade," from Mattapan Square to Paul's Bridge, the
plan for which had been completed in June of 2006.
A section of this Esplanade from the Martini Shell to Mattapan between the
Truman Parkway and the Neponset River was started in the fall of 2009 and opened
in 2012 (see photos).
An extension along the river all the way to the Neponset Valley Parkway in
Readville at the southern edge of Boston was completed in 2015 by
the Department of Conservation and Recreation, and this whole section was opened
cermoniously in August 2015.
Further northward extensions along Tenean Beach and through Port Norfolk Park were completed in 2010 and 2015, respectively. In 2018, the section of the trail between Central Ave. in Milton and Mattapan Square was completed. This section, with its signature Harvest River Bridge for bicyclists and pedestrians, was designated a Great American Place by the American Planning Association in September, 2019. The next future extension along the harbor almost to Columbia Point, where the Neponset estuary becomes Boston Harbor, was split into three parts. The next one likely to be built will run from Victory Road in Dorchester to Morrissey Boulevard, half on an easement between the colorful gas tank and the Southeast Expressway and half on DCR property. It was designed and funding came through in the fall of 2001, but post-9/11 security concerns about the trail being too close to a gas transmission facility cancelled the project for almost 20 years. The DCR has a potential easement from National Grid, which now owns the facility, construction plans almost ready, and most of the permits in place. In 2019, the Neponset Trail from Tenean Beach to Victory Road, which is on Massachusetts Department of Transportation property adjoining the Southeast Expressway to its west, was combined with the section to the south. with DCR handling the design and MassDOT handling the funding. This also put off construction until 2023, though it is hoped that with a design in hand, the path will be build sooner. The last section north, from the Morrissey Blvd. drawbridge to Columbia Point, is to be built as part of the once-fast-tracked reconstruction of the boulevard and should, like the new roadway, be built above high tide. Higher high tides which have already arrived with global climate change have delayed this design for several years. The final piece of the trail on the south end, the one that actually connects it to the Blue Hills State Reservation, will parallel the Neponset Valley Parkway and the Neponset River to Paul's Bridge, at the border between Boston and Milton and the beginning of the Fowl Meadow section of the Reservation. Routing is currently being studied, and it is hoped that design will begin in fiscal 2020. A new connection northward toward Boston's Seaport District has begun with a bike path opened by Massport in 2017 along First St. in South Boston. Future bike lanes and cycle tracks are planned along Summer St., Northern Ave., and Congress St. to the Fort Point Channel section of the South Bay Harbor Trail and to the Rose Kennedy Greenway. A path along the Mother Brook, a major tributary of the Neponset in Dedham and Hyde Park, has been studied, but is not going to happen soon. Dedham could also be reached via a potential cycle track along the Neponset Valley Parkway and the proposed Dedham Greenway. The Neponset Trail could also continue up the Neponset along the marsh on the Boston side of the river, under Route 128/I-95 to Westwood and Norwood. The Neponset River Watershed includes all or portions of the communities of Boston, Canton, Dedham, Dover, Foxboro, Medfield, Milton, Norwood, Quincy, Randolph, Sharon, Stoughton, Walpole, and Westwood. The Boston Natural Areas Network (formerly the Boston Natural Areas Fund) and The Trust for Public Land had sequential 4-year and 3-year grants to develop community support and a vision for a greenway in support of the MDC's (and now DCR's) ongoing projects. The Neponset River Greenway Council, which spun off on its own after BNAN was taken over by The Trustees, continues to work to build public support for a greenway from the mouth of the river in Dorchester, through Mattapan and Milton to Readville, Boston's southernmost neighborhood, and beyond.
Maintained by Neponset River Greenway Council President
Jessica Mink
(email)
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![[Neponset Greenway]](nepicon.gif)
