Brown, Richardson & Rowe has designed new shared-use paths and rehabilitated existing trails in both rural and urban areas. Bicycle trails are growing in popularity and importance, both as alternative forms of transportation and as recreational resources. Every type of path has components that need to be integrated into a functionally and visually cohesive overall design such as pavement width and clearance, sight distance, shoulders, safety railings, vegetation management, intersection treatments, pavement markings, signage, overlooks and rest areas at scenic views, benches, picnic tables, shade structures and fencing. Methods to restrict motor vehicles and slow down bicycles at intersections and entries such as bollards, gates, s-curves and islands are also important.
Bicycle trails pass through scenic areas, areas of environmental concern, and private property. We protect these resources and create a successful interface between public and private property. Bicycle trails are often many miles in length and pose maintenance and management challenges for the public agencies that are in charge of them. Effective maintenance and management planning, combined with the installation of long-lasting, durable materials, will reduce operating costs over the life of the bicycle trail.
Our Shared-Use Bicycle Trails
Quinebaug River Trail , Killingly, Connecticut
We received the "Pride in A Quiet Corner" Award with FST for this shared use path with FST in Killingly, Connecticut . The path has a consistent palette of durable materials for the site furnishings appropriate to its context. A numbered, self-guided historic tour, incorporated into a series of river overlooks, acquaints visitors with the Quinebaug’s Native American history.
Arnold Arboretum
This 12 to 15-foot wide, multi-use path accommodates pedestrians, bicycles and rangers on horseback. The sustainable dense graded stone pack surfaced path passes through a 24-acre urban wild.
East Boston Greenway
We have designed two segments of the East Boston Greenway shared-use trail, one through Constitution Beach for DCR and the other segment through the
Bremen Street Park for the Central Artery Tunnel project . The completed trail will enable people to travel from Boston Harbor to the Belle Isle Marsh. In some areas, the pedestrian path is separated from the bicycle trail by a planted median. In other areas where space is limited, bicyclists and pedestrians share the same path sometimes separated by a cobblestone median or a painted divider.
Memorial Drive Rehabilitation Project
As part of the Rizzo team, Brown, Richardson & Rowe designed a two- path system along the Charles River between the B.U. Bridge and the Longfellow Bridge for DCR . It will replace the single narrow path along the edge of the river that does not safely accommodate the high daily volume of users with conflicting needs. The new system will consist of a six-foot wide stabilized aggregate path for pedestrians and joggers and a ten-foot wide bituminous concrete path for bicyclists and in-line skaters. The project is being constructed in two phases. The first phase is complete. The second phase will include the bicycle path, planting and new shade shelters.
Linear Path, Cambridge, MA
BR&R renovated a segment of Linear Path, a bicycle trail that runs from Somerville to Alewife Station through Russell Field in Cambridge. The rehabilitation of the 12-foot wide path included widening the shoulders, moving fixed objects away from the edge of the pavement, installing bicycle racks and directional signs, and providing shade along the path.
Brown, Richardson & Rowe has contributed to the design of other trails including the Bruce N. Freeman Memorial Bike Path in Chelmsford, Lowell and Westford, Massachusetts; a multi-use trail at Millennium Park, the former Gardner Street landfill in West Roxbury; six segments of Lowell’s Canalway system; two segments of the riverwalk along the Merrimack River in Manchester, New Hampshire; two segments of Boston’s Harborwalk; a trail system for Spectacle Island in Boston Harbor; and the Hall’s Pond boardwalk in Brookline, Massachusetts.
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Separated paths for users traveling different speeds at Memorial Drive, Cambridge with shade shelter
Two paths with planted median at Bremen St. Park, East Boston
Overlook on Quinebaug River Trail
Multi-use path, Bussey Brook Meadow, Arnold Arboretum
Perspective sketches illustrate concepts in community process
Multi-use trail, Millennium Park, West Roxbury
Canalway in Kerouac Park, Lowell - path railing at edge of canal
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