Northborough Puts Local Money Behind a New Regional Trail

Northborough's Select Board voted to accept a $58,300 MassTrails grant to study a 1.3-mile segment of the Boston-Worcester Air Line Trail, connecting the Westborough line to the Shrewsbury line along Route 9/20. The funding covers a feasibility study, the step that has to happen before design or construction can begin.

The state grant isn't the only money behind the project. Northborough is contributing $15,331 of its own, covered through DPW staff time and volunteer effort, in addition to a $10,000 contribution the town's Community Preservation Committee had already approved.

The grant is part of a larger $8.6 million round of MassTrails funding the Healey-Driscoll Administration awarded to 65 Massachusetts communities this year to expand trail access statewide. Northborough will now hire a consultant to complete the feasibility study and coordinate design with Westborough and Shrewsbury, since the trail segment connects directly into both towns.

Mass Priorities champions public dollars going toward the investments that actually improve everyday life for Bay Staters, and Northborough putting its own funding behind this project is exactly that.