The Danvers Rail Trail Advisory Committee has created an excellent 57 page Development / Maintenance / Management document for their new rail trail:

PDF file is 6.8 mb, link is HERE  or HERE

http://www.nashobapublishing.com/groton_news/ci_17422032

Rail-trail committees create two-town plan

TOWNSEND -- After five years of hard work, members of the rail-trail funding study committees from Townsend and Groton have come up with a plan to build a nearly 4-mile recreational trail for a minimal cost to the towns.

By Katheleen Conti, Globe Staff  |  August 1, 2010

Link to article

Massachusetts ranks last in the nation in allocating federal funds for alternative transportation projects, according to a recent study that tracks how states have spent billions of federal dollars for projects such as bike and pedestrian paths.

The study, rele

On the fast track

A nonprofit works with several communities to quickly and cheaply transform old rail beds into recreational paths, while similar projects elsewhere are taking years to complete

 Rex Koepnick (right) of the Iron Horse Preservation Society and Ryan Devaney

With Phase II of the Milford Upper Charles Trail now under construction, the trail's committee has come up with another option to complete a missing one-mile piece

Committee Chairman Reno DeLuzio presented a new interim trail link last week that would connect Veterans Memorial Drive to the trail head across from Sacred Heart Church.

Wakefield/Lynnfield Rail Trail Feasibility Study (2007)

Cambridge Grand Junction Rail-with-Trail (2006)

Squannacook River Rail Trail (Groton - Townsend)     Trail Website

Somerville Community Path (2006)

Massachusetts Bicycle Transportation Plan (2008)

Rail-with-Trail: Plan, Design, Build

Rails-with-Trails: Lessons Learned

Rails-with-Trails: Design, Management, and
Operating Characteristics of 61 Trails Along Active Rail Lines

The 184.5 mile long Chesapeake & Ohio Canal is located along the north bank of the Potomac River, starting in Washington, DC and ending in Cumberland, MD. The canal was built between 1828 and 1850, and it operated sporadically between floods until 1924. In 1954, US Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas organized an eight day hike up the canal's towpath in an effort to save it from being converted to a parkway. His efforts succeeded, and in 1971 the canal became a National Historic Park.

Web site HERE