Lynnfield's Rail Trail Is Headed for Construction. Its Reedy Meadow Boardwalk Is Not Yet.

"This is a historic moment, decades in the making, for the Town of Lynnfield, the Friends of the Lynnfield Rail Trail, and the project team," Select Board Chair Alexis Leahy said this summer when MassDOT opened construction bidding for the trail. The bids were advertised July 25 and opened Aug. 25, 2026. The town has said it hopes to have a contractor by November, with a construction schedule to follow.

The trail going out to bid is the first of two phases. It runs 1.8 miles from Nichols Lane in Peabody to Ford Avenue in Lynnfield. The Lynnfield Weekly News describes the full project as a path "and boardwalk" for "taking in the scenery of Reedy Meadow." The boardwalk part of that plan is in Phase 2, which has no construction date.

Ten Years of Close Votes

The Friends of the Lynnfield Rail Trail formed in June 2016 as a volunteer advocacy group. The group brought the 2017 and 2019 Town Meeting articles by citizens' petition.

Patch called the 2017 vote the closest one "any veterans of Lynnfield politics could recall." The 2025 votes were wider, but the Ford Avenue article still drew 475 no votes. Ford Avenue matters because it is where Phase 1 ends. Everything the town has approved so far leads to that endpoint.

Phase 1, Ford Avenue to Peabody

MassDOT's project record describes Phase 1 as a 1.81-mile, 12-foot-wide asphalt shared-use path from Ford Avenue to the Peabody line. It crosses two streets in Lynnfield, Summer Street and Pillings Pond Road. The record lists construction as beginning in "Autumn 2026." The town lists the completion date as July 2028.

The steps left before construction are short and mostly out of public view:

1. Contract award. As of this writing, MassDOT's project page still lists zero contracts for Phase 1. The bid results are attached to the state procurement listing. The number of bidders and the winning bid have not been reported in local coverage.
2. Notice to Proceed. The town's December 2025 schedule forecast that MassDOT would issue this to the contractor in November 2026.
3. A construction schedule. The town said it would publish one "shortly thereafter." No published source yet gives an order of work, a tree-clearing window, or a date for the Summer Street crossing.

The two official records also list different cost figures. MassDOT shows an estimated total contract cost of $5,491,176.35, and the state's COMMBUYS listing shows an estimated total of $4,894,000. Neither page says which figure is the engineer's estimate. The final number will be clear once a contract is signed.

Summer Street was the last obstacle before bidding. In June, the Select Board voted to take temporary construction easements by eminent domain at two properties. Select Board member Rob Dolan called them the "critical final pieces."

What Abutters Were Told

For homes along the old rail bed, the questions are privacy, trees and property lines. In a letter to the Lynnfield Weekly News in April 2025, a resident wrote that the Ford Avenue access change would put the trail alongside a home. The letter raised concerns about privacy, tree removal, flooding, street parking, fencing and eminent domain.

The town's answers have shifted over time. A March 2025 project update said MassDOT construction money would not cover privacy screening in the way first understood, and that Lynnfield had limited funds to address reasonable concerns. In October 2025, the state awarded Lynnfield another $100,000 MassTrails grant for Phase 1, its third significant MassTrails award for the project. According to the town, the grant pays for engineering services through construction and lets Lynnfield consider the extra privacy screening some abutters asked for.

The same December 2025 update covered encroachments, meaning private yards, structures or plantings that over the years have crept onto MBTA land. The trail was designed to avoid physical impacts to them, and the town expects the MBTA to let them stay.

That update also explained why the schedule had slipped about a year from the December 2024 estimate. The town cited several Conservation Commission hearings to address public comments, work to resolve access at Nichols Lane in Peabody, and fitting the project into MassDOT's bidding and construction calendar.

Phase 2 Is Waiting on State Wetlands Rules

Phase 2 is planned as one mile of paved trail and boardwalk from Ford Avenue to Fosters Lane in Wakefield. A Wakefield section would then continue another 1.6 miles to Galvin Middle School. This is the stretch through the open marsh, the scenery used to describe the project since 2016.

Advancement of Phase 2 is still awaiting promulgation of DEP's revised wetlands regulations that were last projected to be issued in Spring 2025.

That is from the town's December 2025 update. It added that the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection had not posted a schedule update for the revised rules since February 2025. MassDOT's page for Phase 2, project 613867, still lists it in preliminary design, with no contracts and no funding-program data. No public source gives a funding decision or construction date for Phase 2.

So for at least a few years, the paved trail will end at Ford Avenue. Phase 1 had to pass Town Meeting, the Conservation Commission, an MBTA lease and a MassDOT review before it could be bid. Phase 2 cannot even begin that process until the state finishes its wetlands rules.

Where You Can See Reedy Meadow Today

Lynnfield already has a boardwalk into the meadow, and it has nothing to do with the rail trail project. Partridge Island Conservation Area covers 40 acres. It has about 1,400 feet of gently sloping upland paths through mature forest and a 700-foot elevated boardwalk into part of Reedy Meadow, ending at two small upland islands.

The meadow itself was once called the Lynnfield Marsh. It covers 1,200 acres, which the town describes as the largest freshwater cattail marsh in Massachusetts. The U.S. Department of the Interior has designated it a National Natural Landmark, and Mass Audubon lists it as an Important Bird Area.

Here is how to visit the meadow and the water that feeds it:

• Partridge Island Conservation Area. The trailhead is on Main Street across from Heritage Lane. Park on Heritage Lane only.
• Rotary Park. A viewpoint on the Pillings Pond shoreline with a fishing dock, a small lawn and seven parking spaces.
• Gerry's Cider Mill Park. The stream here carries water from Pillings Pond into Reedy Meadow.

The Lynnfield Public Library has published a full set of trail maps for the town's conservation areas, which helps on a first visit to Partridge Island. Pillings Pond Road is also one of the two Phase 1 street crossings. The trail will cross the road named for the same pond that drains into the meadow.

What Comes Next

The next public step is the contract award, which the town hopes to announce by November. After that comes the construction schedule, which will set the order of work and the timing for the Summer Street and Pillings Pond Road crossings. The Friends of the Lynnfield Rail Trail post project updates on their website. The latest one found is dated December 2025. Until the schedule is out, the Partridge Island boardwalk remains Lynnfield's way into Reedy Meadow, and the July 2028 completion date covers the stretch from Ford Avenue to Peabody only.

If your home is near Summer Street, Ford Avenue or Pillings Pond Road and you're thinking about how construction in the next couple of years could affect when you sell or how you present your home, Kimberly Zecher is following each step of this project and can talk through the timing with you. Let's Connect.