MASHPEE – The Mashpee Board of Selectmen have approved a project that would widen and lengthen the Route 151 pedestrian/bicycle corridor.
The existing 8-foot pathway would be widened to 10 feet as per the latest MassDOT requirements. A 5-foot sidewalk would be added on the south side of the road from Old Barnstable Road to Winslow Drive.
Also, the corridor would stretch from Mashpee Commons to the Falmouth/Mashpee town line.
Department of Public Works Director Catherine Laurent said that some slight changes to the original plans needed to occur after part of the proposed changes to the corridor was found to bisect wetlands.
The resulting changes added three timber pedestrian bridges and seven retaining walls to the plans, increasing the design cost to &578,213.
Although the town will pay for those costs with Chapter 9 money, a grant from The Massachusetts Department of Transportation will cover all of the estimated $9.2 million construction cost.
The next step in the process is to achieve 75 percent plan approval from the state.
Laurent said she had planned on making the bike path extend to the Cape Cod Fairgrounds in Falmouth, but the town did not move forward with that process.
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