Defunct railways offer tremendous opportunity to connect communities and provide public spaces for recreational activities. Working together with City of Westfield and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), VHB transformed a portion of the discontinued New York/New Haven/Hartford Railroad corridor into an active bicycle/pedestrian connection between the Westfield River and the Southwick town line, linking to a larger existing trail system.
VHB takes pride in collaborating with municipalities in transforming underused resources into sustainable community assets. Our transportation, structures, landscape architecture, and environmental permitting teams were tasked with adding recreational space, improved access, and modern safety features while balancing innovation and preservation, and respecting the cultural value of the century-old bridges along the trail. Through strategic phasing and coordination, the VHB team minimized public inconvenience and emphasized environmentally conscious practices, with the overall aim being community enhancement through exceptional engineering.
The completed Columbia Greenway Rail Trail consists of 3.1-miles of paved bicycle and pedestrian trail, six new and three rehabilitated historic bridges, improved safety features, as well as new access ramps, emergency vehicle access points, added parking, and landscaped areas, with approximately 81 percent of the trail encompassing off-road facilities. The trail is now open to cyclists, pedestrians, and nature enthusiasts, acting as a connecting trail into the New Haven & Northampton Canal Greenway, an 80-plus mile greenway that runs through portions of Massachusetts and Connecticut.
