Westport, MA teams with neighboring towns on biking, walking trails

Ari Gold makes his way up the bike lane of Old Westport Road on his Vision R40 recumbent bicycle.​

Westport teams with neighboring towns on biking, walking trails Fall River Herald News

Westport, MA — The Westport Bike Path Committee is teaming up with its counterparts in Dartmouth and New Bedford to study potential bike trails and walking paths through the three communities.

The advisory committee already has $10,000 in town funding and another $10,000 from neighboring Dartmouth committed to help fund an extensive study of potential pathways, and is expected to get a third allotment of $10,000 from New Bedford in the near future.

The $30,000 in local funding will help pay for a detailed feasibility study of the options for connecting pathways, estimated to cost $80,000, Westport committee member Keith MacDonald said at the group’s April 18 meeting at Westport Free Public Library.

The alliance will use the money as “matching funds” to secure a state Mass Trails grant, expected to be awarded in May, MacDonald said. If the award is made this spring, MacDonald said the committee could get the planners at the Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District to start looking at possible cycling and pedestrian pathways through the three communities.

The study should take about nine months, so route recommendations and likely cost estimates should be available a year from now, MacDonald said.

The feasibility study will start with a connecting trail starting from the Narrows at Route 6 near White’s of Westport, and look to connect with Dartmouth pathways in the northern part of that town, MacDonald said.

The proposed Dartmouth bike path network is looking to connect to the New Bedford bike trail starting near the city reservoir, as well as a southern leg coming from Fairhaven and running along the city waterfront to Clark’s Cove and the Dartmouth line.

The common goal of the three communities is to link up with other elements of the South Coast Bikeway Alliance, a proposed 50-mile bike and pedestrian pathway running from Rhode Island to Cape Cod.

To the west, the link is to the Quechechan Trail through Fall River, which ends at LePage’s Restaurant, just before the Westport line. To the east, New Bedford paths lead to portions of the bikeway existing in Fairhaven, Mattapoistett and Marion.

As envisioned by the South Coast Bikeway Alliance, the western routes through Somerset and Swansea would lead to Warren, Rhode Island, and a connection to the East Bay Bike Path running to Providence. The South Coast Bikeway ...

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I'm sorry but that is just TOO MUCH STUFF to be hauling around. The guy must not of ever been backpacking!