A new section of the Merrimack River Greenway Trail is en route after receiving the Concord City Council’s sign-off on design and construction funding Monday night.
The Greenway Trail aims to run 12 miles lengthwise through Concord, linking Pembroke to the Northern Rail Trail, which kicks up near the Hannah Dustin memorial in Boscawen. It already includes a short segment along the sunflower fields on the eastern bank of the Merrimack River and another through Terrill Park off Manchester Street.
The segment approved Monday accounts for the northernmost 1.8 miles of a nearly six-mile stretch of tracks purchased by the city early this year. It will extend from Boscawen to where the rail line hits Sewells Falls Road, bringing the total non-contiguous Greenway Trail mileage in Concord to just under five miles. Organizers behind the Greenway Trail have dubbed it the “Penacook Rail Trail.”
“This is an incredibly rare opportunity to create an alternative transportation route for non-motorized traffic through the city,” Nicole Fox, a resident and traffic engineer, said at the council’s meeting on Monday, praising the project not just for its boost to local recreation but for its utility and sustainability. “We do not have many corridors where this is an option connecting Penacook and Downtown.”
The vast majority of the $1.8 million in funding earmarked for this segment of the trail, about $1.4 million or 80%, comes from a federal Transportation Alternative Program (TAP) grant. Another $105,000 will come from Greenway Trail fundraisers, and the city’s contribution — a 20% match under the terms of the grant — amounts to about $350,000 drawn from recreational impact fees and the recreation reserve.
Existing sections of the Greenway Trail are paved paths friendly to foot and wheel traffic, but a city report notes there will be community meetings to give input on the design of the new segment. There isn’t yet an estimated completion date, but the permitting process will last at least into 2027.
The city has a close partnership with the Friends of the Merrimack River Greenway Trail. City manager Tom Aspell heralded the project as groundbreaking.
“There’s always going to be critics who are going to fight against transformational projects – and this a transformation,” he said. “None of us can really understand the difference this is going to make in ten years to this community.”
