Rail Trail Public Important Meeting Tues Feb 9th

This Public Information Meeting was requested by the State as a follow up to the 25% Design Hearing for the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail (BFRT). This request was due to the gap in our 25% Design which had the proposed trail going through West Concord  Village in an undetermined fashion at the time.  Some State office/agency representatives will be present at this meeting. However, to be clear, the "Public Hearing" for the 25% Design was completed and is officially closed.
 
The design of the multiuse BRFT has an undermined routing through West Concord.  Several alternatives have been studied by Greenman-Pedersen, Inc., GPI, at the request of the Concord BFRT Advisory Committee and are now ready for review with citizens.  These alternatives deal with the safety of crossing the active rail line and feeder roads, traffic on Commonwealth Avenue and Main Street, street parking, impact on local businesses, environmental considerations, the look and feel of West Concord Village, design and construction costs, ongoing maintenance, and the positions of the MBTA and other governmental offices and agencies relative to permissions, design and funding.  There are difficult issues and decisions to be made regarding this section of the Concord section of the BFRT.  Public participation and comments are requested.
 
The meeting will briefly present all the alternatives, and with more detail for those deemed more feasible/least objectionable and likely to be pursued once public comments have been considered.  A "just revised" BFRT/MBTA Commuter Rail Crossing Alternatives Analysis report in PDF form should be posted on the Town website Monday or Tuesday per last Thursday's BFRT Advisory meeting.  The more feasible/least objectionable individual alternatives may also be posted in separate PDFs in as much as the whole report is about 75 pages once revisions are completed. The link to the Town's BFRTAC page is http://www.concordma.gov/pages/ConcordMA_Freeman/index. The BFRT Advisory Committee expects to have a handout picture/schematic of the more feasible/least objectionable alternatives for this meeting.
 
While the BFRT Public Information Meeting on the 9th will focus on the West Concord design gap alternatives, separate comment sheets will be available at the meeting for the public to submit should there be additional comments or questions about the project not covered by the purpose of this meeting.