WILLIAMSBURG — It’s official. When Route 9 in Williamsburg comes up for its next scheduled rebuild, the Mill River Greenway will be incorporated.
Last week, Williamsburg received a formal letter from the state Department of Transportation declaring the Greenway project eligible for state and federal transportation funding.
That means that when Route 9 is revamped, the project will include the creation of a 10-foot-wide shared-use path to connect the village centers of Williamsburg and Haydenville. The path will run along the river side of the road, separated from car traffic by a landscaped curb.
That is good news for the Mill River Greenway Committee, as well as for residents looking for a safe route to travel by bicycle or foot between Haydenville and Williamsburg.
Gaby Immerman, chairperson of the Greenway Committee, said that although the rebuild of Route 9 isn’t to take place until 2025, becoming part of the project now is crucial.
“This is absolutely significant,” Immerman said. “Right now it may not seem like something big is happening, but guess what? Eight years from now there certainly will be.”
When completed, the Williamsburg Mill River Greenway will share South Main Street to the Haydenville Library, then separate from the road, running along the river side of Route 9 within the public right-of-way for two miles to the Helen E. James School in Williamsburg center.
Immerman said that planning for the Mill River Greenway project has been going on for the last five years. She praised the “diligent efforts” of the Greenway Committee and credited Nick Dines, a landscape architect and retired University of Massachusetts professor of landscape architecture, for countless hours of donated design and planning expertise.
“Beyond its benefits to walkers and bikers, the Mill River Greenway will promote the ecological health, economic development, recreational opportunities, and historical features of the Williamsburg Mill River corridor,” Immerman said.
This will also effectively put Williamsburg on the Mass Central Rail Trail system.
Once a 104-mile railroad line from Northampton to Boston, the Rail Trail is being transformed into a path for bicyclists, pedestrians, cross-country skiers, equestrians, nature enthusiasts and the like.
Last winter Haydenville joined the Rail Trail system when a project to regrade, pave, and add guardrails to a section of the trail about 1.5 miles west of Leeds was completed, bringing trail users safely out to a dismount on South Street. That section of the Leeds-Haydenville trail had been known as the “goat path.”
“Before that work was done, the trail was barely navigable by an able bodied person,” Immerman said.
Funding for that project came from a Recreational Trails Grant program administered by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation.
On Sunday, the Greenway Committee will host a community forum from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Williamsburg town offices to give residents an opportunity to view sketches, maps and plans of the Greenway project.
Information will also be available on the project’s funding requirements and grant opportunities. For more information, visit: Millrivergreenway.org.