‘A momentous day’: Mattapoisett bike path to open
MATTAPOISETT— The long awaited opening of the Mattapoisett bike path has come.
According to Mattapoisett Select Board member Jordan Collyer, the section of the bike path between Reservation Road and Goodspeed Island Road will be open to the public as of Friday, April 28.
The Select Board voted to approve a “memorandum of understanding” with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation on Thursday, April 27.
The memorandum protects the town by requiring that the state cover the cost of insufficient building materials for no less than 20 years
“This is a momentous day,” said Select Board Chair Tyler Macallister.
Warped planks and the Covid-19 pandemic delayed construction on the section of the bike path between Reservation Road and the end of Goodspeed Island Road.
Since then, the Select Board has worked with 10th Bristol Representative William Straus (D-Mattapoisett), Town Administrator Mike Lorenco and MassDot to protect the town from materials failing such as the glulam pails on the bridge over Eel Pond according to Select Board member Jordan Collyer.
“The [memorandum of understanding] protects us from premature failure of the decking, warping, cracking [or] anything like that for a period no less than 20 years,” said Collyer. “Now if it gets banged up in a hurricane that’s a different story, but at the end of the day, if the product starts failing like it did last time we can go to the Commonwealth and they’ll be on the hook for [repairs].”
Collyer said that MassDot agreed that provisions such as waterproofing materials have been deemed “unnecessary” for the town to be responsible for.
Lorenco noted that there will be no parking at the end of Reservation Road to access the bike path.
“Park at Depot Street and walk from there,” suggested Collyer.
According to Collyer, a ribbon cutting ceremony will take place towards the end of May.
“ This thirty year effort to connect the center of Fairhaven with Mattapoisett village is now complete,” wrote Straus. “I'm proud to have played a role and helped whenever I could.”
