New Lighting on Somerville Community Path Extension Complete

Just in time for winter’s shorter days, the City of Somerville has installed new lighting on previously unlit segments of the Community Path Extension to deliver a safer and more comfortable experience for people using the path after dark.  

The new lighting, designed by the engineering firm Arup (arup.com) for the City, spans approximately 2,600 feet (or about a half mile) of the Community Path Extension between Walnut Street and Poplar Street on either side of the MBTA’s East Somerville Station. Light is delivered by downward facing lights attached to the bottom of the railing that runs alongside the fence that separates the path from the railway.  

The lights are programmed to automatically turn on at sunset and off at sunrise. The lighting is also dark-sky friendly meaning that it works to minimize light pollution by directing light downward toward the path itself.  

Photos of the newly installed lighting can be found on the City’s Community Path webpage at somervillema.gov/communitypath.

More About the Community Path 

The Somerville Community Path is an approximately 3.2-mile, off-street, multi-use path that runs from Alewife Linear Park at the Cambridge city line to the Lechmere MBTA station in East Cambridge.   

The original Somerville Community Path was constructed in 1985 in the former Fitchburg Cutoff Rail Bed and ran approximately 1.3 miles from Massachusetts Avenue to Lowell Street via Davis Square. After significant community organizing by residents alongside advocacy by the City and elected officials,  the Community Path Extension became part of the MBTA’s Green Line Extension project. The extended path opened in June 2023 adding a new section extending from Lowell Street to the Lechmere T-Station.  

More information about the path including ongoing improvement projects and detour notifications is available at somervillema.gov/communitypath. 

Persons with disabilities who need auxiliary aids and services for effective communication (i.e., CART, ASL), written materials in alternative formats, or reasonable modifications in policies and procedures to access the programs, activities, and meetings of the City of Somerville should please contact Adrienne Pomeroy in advance at 617-625-6600 x 2059 or apomeroy@somervillema.gov.  

The City of Somerville can provide you with an interpreter in your language for free. To request an interpreter, please contact us at somerviva@somervillema.gov or call 311 (617-666-3311).