Charles River walkway takes a big step forward -
Paths would link Weston, Watertown 

By Emily Sweeney
Globe Staff Correspondent

While a seven-year-old master plan to complete a continuous walkway along the banks of the Charles River from Weston to Watertown is about to take another step forward, concerns continue about maintenance of portions of the existing path.

The Metropolitan District Commission has been working toward restoring the Upper Charles River Basin and linking it to the Lower Basin in Boston so people can walk, jog, and bike along the river all the way to the Esplanade, and now key links along the Upper Basin are ready to be restored with construction scheduled on one for this fall, according to Dan Driscoll, the MDC project manager.

''The overall goal is to create a continuous public greenway on one bank or the other - not always both - along the Charles River as it extends through Newton, Watertown , Waltham, Weston, Needham, Wellesley, Dedham, and back to Boston again,'' Driscoll said.

''By building these links, that will take it closer to that goal. It links the Boston Esplanade to Watertown Square, through downtown Waltham to Commonwealth Avenue in Newton. Dedham, Needham and Wellesley will have some missing sections to work on.''

Two pieces of pathway along the riverbank are scheduled for construction over the next year.   Plans to build the path along the mile of riverbank from Bridge Street in Newton to Farwell Street in Waltham will go out to bid in September, and construction is scheduled to begin in the fall and be completed within a year. A new footbridge will be built to connect the Cheesecake Brook area to the opposite bank in Watertown.

Construction on the 500-foot section from Elm Street to Landry Park in Waltham will begin in the spring and will also take about a year, according to Driscoll. This project will feature a boardwalk off the side of the Museum of Industry building.

The new pathways will be paved with organic stabilizer, which looks like brown dirt, Driscoll said.

Three other projects are also due to be built within the next year. They are a new entrance at California Street in Watertown, a new entrance at Moody Street in Waltham, and a new boat launch and a third-of-a-mile pathway connecting it to the Prospect Street area near the Waltham Watch Factory building.

Meanwhile, some say that existing portions of the walkway along the Charles are not properly maintained.

Former Watertown town Councilor Alex Liazos said the 1.5-mile path from Watertown Square east to North Beacon Street is in ''absolutely deplorable'' condition.   ''I've been pruning some tree branches. There are dead tree branches all over the place. There are tons of dead trees, and trash collecting along the path.''

Driscoll acknowledged that certain pieces of parkland along the Charles could be maintained better, but he said it should not stop the MDC from continuing to restore other sections of the greenway.

''[The MDC] manages 17,000 acres of parkland,'' Driscoll said. ''Our funding and staffing is limited in the area of maintenance. We don't pretend that is not the case. But you don't stop doing good things - buying land and building parks - because you find one small section [that is not maintained as well as people would like]. From a broad planning perspective, that is a counterproductive attitude.''

Driscoll said the new walkways are designed to require little maintenance.

''It's designed as self-sustaining natural environment,'' he said. ''It's not an area where you have to cut the lawn every week. It's almost overgrown-looking. This isn't like the Esplanade area.

''Even when it is un-maintained, it's still beautiful greenway corridor.''

The natural design of the area, Driscoll said, is meant to be hospitable to wildlife.

''The banks are left overgrown and rustic with the intention to maximize the benefits for wildlife. We are working toward getting more state-allocated resources so we can have a full-time ranger there.''

Anna Eleria, an environmental scientist at the Charles River Watershed Association, said the walkway is ''really bringing the river back to life.''  

''It's been a great educational tool for the local residents. They can see how the water quality and health of the river has improved over the last decade. It offers scenic vistas of river that were once not available. It brings along stewardship of the river, people are now out there on stream teams, community groups are taking responsibility of cleaning up the river.''

The CRWA, which holds a cleanup day each spring, is concerned about the maintenance of the parklands, Eleria said.

''We support the MDC's effort to acquire more open space, but they have to look at the big picture and make sure they can sustain the open space. We are concerned. We encourage the MDC to form private and public partnerships with abutters of the river.''

Driscoll, a senior planner at the MDC who has been working on this project since 1988, said there were 92 illegal encroachments along the river - parking lots, fences, gardens, all creeping toward the waterway and onto the MDC property. Over the past 10 years, those encroachments have been resolved, said Driscoll.

''You would not have known it was public parkland,'' said Driscoll, who got the land along the riverbank back piece by piece, and, at the same time, formed partnerships with the property owners along the banks. ''I negotiated with all the landowners and we came up with a creative solution that did not overpenalize these people and get their stuff off of our land. It was a resolution of longstanding encroachments. If you had a parking lot, you paid us the cost of [removing the parking lot.]''

Driscoll said the MDC has entered into maintenance agreements with several companies along the river, including Control Delivery Systems in Watertown and Sasaki Associates, a Watertown design firm. 

Waltham City Councilor Robert Logan lives five blocks away from the Charles River, and often walks along the banks. He said his top concern about the project is ''just that it gets done,'' so people will be able to walk from Prospect Street all the way to the Esplanade.

''It's a tremendous improvement. It has helped to clean up the area, and has greatly increased public access to the Charles River, one of the greatest natural resources in the city,'' said Logan.

Logan said the lack of maintenance has always been a problem with the MDC.   He cited MDC's closed pool in Waltham and the closed boat dock at the Moody Street bridge as examples.

''A big problem is the maintenance, but I can't blame the MDC itself,'' said Logan. ''They work with what they're given by the Legislature.''

This story ran on page W1 of the Boston Globe on 8/15/2002.

© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company