Sudbury Gets New Bruce Freeman Trail Grant For Extension To Framingham

SUDBURY, MA — State officials on Friday revealed $12 million in grants for trail projects across the state, including a six-figure grant for the completion of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail from Sudbury into Framingham.

The $250,000 grant with a $150,000 local match will help the town complete final designs for the section of trail that would travel south from near Route 20 to about 200 feet over the Framingham line. This section of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail is known as Phase 3.

Phase 2D of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail is under construction now in Sudbury, and the new section could be officially open by the fall. Phase 2D travels from the Concord line to just north of Route 20.

The completion of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail in Sudbury will make the town a nexus of major rail trails in the state.

A new section of the Mass Central Rail trail is also under construction, traveling from near the Wayland line northeast into Hudson. The Mass Central Rail Trail will one day travel from Boston to Northampton, while the Bruce Freeman trail, once complete, will travel from Lowell to Framingham. Almost all the Bruce Freeman trail is complete, except for Phase 2D and the section in Framingham that will end at Route 9.

The new MassTrails grant will complement work on Phase 3 that's been ongoing in Sudbury for years. A draft design of the trail has already been submitted to MassDOT, and the town has set aside over $600,000 — mostly from the Community Preservation Act — to fund design other pre-construction work.