DIGHTON — Town Administrator Mallory Aronstein and the Dighton Trails Committee are pleased to share an update regarding the committee’s ongoing planned initiatives.
The Dighton Trails Committee was established in 2018 and consists of five volunteers: Jeff Carvalho, Rachel Conti, Rachel Beagan, Karen Alves and Bob Baglini.
The committee’s vision is to build multimodal trail infrastructure in Dighton that will integrate with the existing South Coast Bikeway infrastructure through Somerset into Taunton, and develop local trails using existing inventory of parks and town-owned properties.
The South Coast Bikeway will be a 50-mile continuous system of bike paths (or multi-use paths) and bike lanes that will connect Rhode Island to Cape Cod. Several segments of the bikeway already exist in Swansea, Fall River, New Bedford, Fairhaven, Mattapoisett and Wareham.
To accomplish this vision the committee will focus on formalizing existing town trail inventory and augmenting the Department of Conservation and Recreation’s (DCR) Sweets Knoll Rail-Trail Plans.
Formalizing Existing Town Trails:
The committee will focus on formalizing existing town trail inventory at the Broad Cove Nature trails first. In this endeavor, the committee will implement trail kiosks, add trail markings, create trail mappings and update all of this information on internet sites such as AllTrails.
The committee will partner with the Bristol-Plymouth Regional Technical School’s carpentry shop to construct a trail kiosk to be installed at the west entrance of the trail. The committee also plans on partnering with the community to assist with trail marking and map generation.
Augmenting DCR’s Sweets Knoll Rail-Trail Plans:
The committee will also focus on augmenting the DCR’s plans for the Sweets Knoll trail.
The committee will first conduct a feasibility study to assess connecting the north side of the trail to Center Street and eventually north into Taunton. A firm has already been contacted with a request for a rough order of magnitude (ROM) to facilitate grant submissions for the section north of DCR’s assumed trail.
Additionally, plans have been vetted through local committees to construct trail head features on Somerset Avenue and an on-road trail section down Pleasant Street. The trailhead transition rough plans on Somerset Avenue have been drafted and vetted through Conservation, Parks & Recreation and Open Space committees to include a parking area and a trail to the waterfront section.
To learn more about the Dighton Trails Committee’s planned initiatives, click here.
“We appreciate the Town’s continuous support as we make further headway on these planned projects,” Dighton Trails Committee Chairman Carvalho said. “It is our overall goal to create more accessible trails for our community members to enjoy. To accomplish this goal it is our hope to eventually develop additional trails using existing town properties and parks.”
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