Westborough BWALT Trail Gets $440K State Award For Extension

WESTBOROUGH, MA — The state Department of Conservation and Recreation Wednesday offered a sizeable grant to Westborough to design a new section of the Boston Worcester Air Line Trail, which could someday expand to 7 miles across the town.

The $440,000 DCR grant would come alongside a Town Meeting appropriation of $110,000 to design a new 1.7-mile section of the BWALT trail from Park Street to Otis Street near Smith Parkway. Another section in the works would connect from Otis Street to the MBTA station along Smith Parkway.

The BWALT trail in Westborough is part of a larger vision to turn the abandoned Boston-Worcester Trolley Line corridor into a multi-use trail that would stretch from Framingham to Worcester.

The DCR award to BWALT was part of a nearly $12 million round of grants announced this week by the agency and the Gov. Maura Healey administration. Sixty-eight projects from the Boston area to the Berkshires got funding this week, with all required to provide some type of matching funds to get the state award.