Tiot Trail and Neponset River Crossings

The Norwood Trails Advisory Committee (NTAC) recently gave a public presentation to a full house in the community room at the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood.

NepRWA board member and NTAC member Jerry Hopcroft shared the NTAC’s approach to trail-making, how the all-volunteer crew situates, designs, gains approval for, constructs, and installs wooden water crossings, and how he applies his experience as a member of a specialized volunteer work team building wooden staircases, boardwalks, handrails, and bridges along the trails in Acadia National Park during the summer.

The Tiot Trail

Members of the NTAC have been working for years on a vision to build 13 crossings to increase access to areas inaccessible to pedestrians due to flooded drainage ditches and gulleys. The crossings would enable uninterrupted travel on the “Tiot Trail,” an 18-mile loop circumnavigating the Town of Norwood.

The name honors the Algonquin concept of the area as “land surrounded by water,” referencing the Neponset River and local ponds, tributaries, brooks, and streams encircling territory that became the Town.

Designing the Crossings

Hopcroft, serving as design engineer for the water crossings, emphasized that trail-building is not a simple or easy process; it needs to be done methodically and in concert with many others for safety.

When trails require water crossings, he said there’s a first rule: don’t call them bridges! “Boardwalks” sit on land, “bridges” are structures that run over navigable water, and “crossings” span non-navigable water, he explained. Specificity matters since each structure is subject to distinct rules and regulations.

The iterative process of walking to find the best route for the trail involves keeping the most scenic views in sight, and working to eliminate hazards underfoot and overhead—and this is just the first step of many, Hopcroft cautioned. Trail-making and construction is doable and wonderful for community-building, but isn’t for the faint of heart.

View the NTAC Trailmaking Presentation

Challenges

One challenge has been the process of gaining required approvals from the various Town departments including the Town Manager, the Board of Selectmen, the planning, engineering, public works departments, and the Conservation Commission.

Another set of solutions to find involves transporting supplies along the trails or across the river and sometimes through the muddy or flooded woods; the answers are to carry by some combination of:

hand
canoe
cart
all-terrain vehicle
raft

Another consideration is how to design each structure to comply, to the degree possible, with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

There is also always a need to recruit volunteers, as some structures require structural members to be constructed on-site that then require a dozen or more people to lift and safely haul into place on the support systems—literally many hands making light work.

Materials and Funding

Hopcroft said the NTAC uses pressure-treated lumber for the Norwood crossings, but cedar is preferred for the work in Maine. Sourcing depends on Town and State contract specifications, and he noted that Home Depot has thus far offered the most competitive pricing for lumber and materials in Norwood.

Project Partners

Funding for the projects has come from the Community Preservation Act funds that are collected annually and approved by Town Meeting on the recommendation of the Community Preservation Committee. The NTAC also receives support from the Norwood Conservation Commission and the Norwood Department of Community Development.

Fellow engineer, NepRWA board member, and NTAC member Heather Audet attended the talk, as she is also working on the Tiot Trail project.

Progress on the Trail

The NTAC has organized efforts that have included dozens of committee members and volunteers who have worked to complete the first batch of permitted crossings, including one along the Vanderbilt Trail in the Pine Tree Forest and three along the Neponset River on the Meadow Street trail network.
Two more have been permitted, and four others are in the permitting process along trails off University Avenue in Norwood.
Plans are at early stages to connect the Norwood trails to Walpole, Canton, and Dedham and then to the Blue Hills trail networks.

Get Involved

The NTAC is always seeking members and volunteers to take action to help build the Tiot Trail.

The upcoming meeting of the NTAC is Tuesday, September 8^th at the new Coakley Middle School Library’s Media Center. All are welcome to attend, and most meetings are also online.

For questions or to sign up for a volunteer construction day, please contact any of the following: