Newburyport, Mass.'s $6 million Market Landing Park construction and expansion project continues to be on schedule as work moves forward on establishing priority park space.

The coastal Massachusetts city's project kicked off last August and is expected to be completed by this summer.

Crews with Acton, Mass.-based Onyx Corp. are converting a number of waterfront parking lots into additional green space flanking the east and west sides of the 4.6-acre site, the Daily News of Newburyport reported Jan. 1. The effort also will feature new park wings and a shared-use path connecting two phases of the Clipper City Rail Trail.

"The park project that's under construction right now is expanding the primary priority park space along the water's edge," explained Andy Port, the project's manager, and planning director of the city of Newburyport, who added that, timewise, everything is proceeding as it should.

"Our plan is to be finished by the May to June timeframe of this [year], and we're on track with that right now."

In speaking with the Daily News, he said the primary aspect of the project is under way and that two additional walkways will be put in at a later date.

"A bike path connection that goes across the central waterfront [will connect] with the boardwalk, so there will no longer be a complete [bike path] gap through the downtown," Port noted.

Jim McCauley, the Ward 5 councilor on the Newburyport City Council and a Market Landing Ad Hoc member, told the Daily News, "On projects like this, they're all always weather dependent. So, I think we're on schedule now. With some good weather, we should be around our completion timeframes."

Port also commented to the newspaper about some of the challenges facing the Market Landing Park project.

"I think the main difficulty we have right now is actually trying to coordinate with National Grid where we're hoping that they can provide transformers," he said. "They have to replace the transformers that are there today."

Port is hopeful that National Grid, a utilities provider in Massachusetts and New York State, will deliver the three transformers the project needs to allow the project to continue on its pace.

"That's one thing that we're focused on right now," he said.

Other Project Phases Likely to Be Debated

Port also spoke about the future scope of the project including a potential third phase that has yet to be funded.

"The visitor center restroom facility would replace both the temporary chamber booth that's been there as well as the restroom trailer that was removed this season," he explained.

McCauley noted that the Newburyport City Council will be discussing additional phases of the project during 2024.

"This next council will be able to take up and debate about funding the next series of phases to this park going forward," McCauley said.

Port shared why he was excited to see the Market Landing Park project getting done.

"It helps to settle all those years and decades of debate about the central waterfront, allowing the community to focus on other areas," he said.

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