The White Cedar Swamp Boardwalk Project aka The Davis Road Boardwalk

Map, courtesy of the Bedford Department of Public Works, 2017 all rights reserved – Click to view larger image

Soraya Stevens, Chair
Bedford Transportation Advisory Committee

Editor’s Note: On Tuesday, November 28 the Transportation Advisory Committee and the DPW will hold an information meeting about the White Cedar Swamp Boardwalk in the Town Hall Multipurpose Room at 7:30 pm

Over 20 years ago, residents of Davis Road organized and asked the town to consider building sidewalks on Davis Road, especially along the White Cedar Swamp area to facilitate safe bicycle and pedestrian travel.  It is an important stretch of road because it connects neighborhoods to schools and increases bicycle and pedestrian connectivity between West Bedford and the center of town.

The stretch of Davis Road next to the White Cedar Swamp has a posted speed limit of 35mph and due to Massachusetts State Law, lowering posted speed limits is a nearly insurmountable task.  The road has significant glare issues at certain times of the day and is largely unused by pedestrians and cyclists due to the lack of safe shoulders and the inherent speed through the area.  In the winter, this area is prone to black ice, and the snow banks further reduce the area for any pedestrian travel.  This stretch of road poses many challenges for construction of traditional sidewalks.  There are significant conservation land impact considerations and grading issues on both sides of the road and there are utility poles and right-of-way concerns on the north side.  There is a long history of obstacles to building a sidewalk along this busy stretch of residential roadway; multiple attempts have been made and no sidewalk was ever constructed.

In 2014, the Bedford Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC) was approached by residents, Lisa Freed and Suzanne Koller, to revisit the Davis Road Sidewalk project and determine if there could be other solutions to creating a safe and navigable bicycle and pedestrian path.  Adrienne St. John, the Bedford Department of Public Works (DPW) Engineer, suggested a boardwalk as a possible alternative.   With approval from TAC and the Selectmen, the DPW embarked on investigating what, if any, boardwalk design could be developed so as to minimize the environmental impact to the swamp and meet the needs of residents to have an accessible and safe path for bicyclists and pedestrians.  Over the last three years, a design has been developed and Conservation Commission permits have been obtained to construct a boardwalk, similar to the boardwalk in the Minuteman National Park, but with railings on both sides. The boardwalk will be offset from the road so it will not be right up against the road.  Due to the history of crashes involving cars running off the road and into the swamp, a guardrail will be installed along Davis Road to protect the boardwalk and its users.

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This project has the support from many town committees and the Selectmen.   Funding for the project was originally requested for FY18 and subsequently delayed to FY23 due to the myriad competing projects we have in our budget.  Now that all of the permitting is in place for this project, if this project is to move forward, it is important to fund it in a timely manner so the project can begin before permits expire.  It is a sizeable project, on the order of $800,000, but unfortunately, it is the only viable design for this stretch of road.   A request has been made to the Capital Expenditures Committee (CEC) to move the funding for this project into the FY19 budget to ensure that this project can move forward.

As with any large project, it is important for our town decision makers to understand which projects are important to our residents in case some of them need to be postponed or alternatives need to be considered.  The CEC has requested more information about this project before they make their decision on whether or not to advance the timeline for this work to FY19.  They need to know if this is, indeed, a boardwalk that people want and if it is something residents will use.

In an effort to collect input from residents, we are reaching out to you in a few forums.  If you feel that this is a project you’d benefit from, please email [email protected] and share your thoughts with us.  If you would like to learn more about the project, the TAC and DPW will hold an information session on November 28th at 7:30pm in the Town Hall Multipurpose Room to present the design and be available to answer any questions you have on the project.

Thank you in advance for any comments or input you can share so that this project can soon become a reality.

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Sandra Hackman
November 19, 2017 7:47 am

This sounds like a great project. Many thanks to all for helping to move it forward.

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