The new asphalt along Lincoln Road is temporary by design. The strips over the trenches are temporary paving above a water main that replaced one roughly a century old. The road on top of them gets its curb-to-curb repaving in fall 2027.
Most of the center of town is in the same state this winter. The library will heat with a replacement boiler while the larger system question goes back to a future Town Meeting. The community center on Ballfield Road has its siding nearly on and opens in spring. A town-wide paving program sits in a queue that starts with the March Town Meeting. These stand-ins are intentional, and each one has a set date for its replacement.
Down Lincoln Road, north to south
The town calls it the Big Dig, and it covers two projects: a water main replacement and drain work. The main, its hydrants and its service lines run from the top of the Bedford Road hill to Route 117. The stated goals are restoring capacity and improving fire flow. Here is where each stretch stands, heading south:
- Bedford Road hill to Five Corners. The main drain, laterals, catch basins and manholes were all replaced. The work began April 13 and was scheduled to finish in June, and Bedford Road between Five Corners and the top of the hill closed at times while it was underway. The town's planned detours used Sandy Pond and Baker Bridge roads for west and north Lincoln and Trapelo Road, Lexington Road and Route 2 for the east side.
- Five Corners to Ballfield Road. Phase 1 of the water main is finished. At the October State of the Town meeting, Water Department Superintendent Rick Nolli said curb-to-curb repaving of Bedford Road was expected this fall.
- Hallfield Road to the tracks. The Phase 2 mains are in. Crews have been connecting residential service lines, pressure-testing and putting temporary paving over the trenches.
- Under the railroad crossing at Lincoln Station. This is the one Phase 2 piece still unbuilt, and it is slated for this winter. When the town announced the project in February, it named Lincoln Station's residents and businesses as the stops where access mattered most during construction.
- The tracks to Route 117/South Great Road. The mains are in, and this stretch has moved into restoration along with the rest of Phase 2.
The town's November 6 update said Phase 2 work starting the week of November 8 would focus on paving, cleanup, loam and seeding. It also warned drivers to expect alternating one-way traffic wherever crews are working. For the winter crossing work, Nolli said Lincoln Road may drop to one lane, with work both day and night, but the road will not close at any point and MBTA service will run as usual, as the Lincoln Squirrel reported.
Why the patch stays until 2027
The temporary paving is there so the ground can settle. In August, the Town Administrator told the Select Board that the Bedford Road drainage project had only its final pavement course left. That course would be scheduled once the trenches had a couple of seasons to settle. Lincoln Road follows the same order. Trenches backfilled in 2026 get a 2026 patch and a 2027 surface.
The town's February schedule sets the longer timeline. Substantial completion is August 27, 2027. Final trench paving and punch-list work follow in spring 2028, and final completion is May 26, 2028.
| What you see this winter | Its permanent version | When, per the town |
|---|---|---|
| Temporary trench paving on Lincoln Road | Curb-to-curb repaving | Fall 2027 |
| Open work at the railroad crossing | Last Phase 2 main segment | Winter 2026–27 |
| Phase 2 restoration: loam, seed, cleanup | Substantial completion | August 27, 2027 |
| Remaining trench patches and punch list | Final completion | May 26, 2028 |
| A new gas boiler at the library | Conventional HVAC replacement | A future Town Meeting |
| Community center closed in, not yet open | Opening | Spring 2027 |
Lincoln planned the cost as carefully as the sequence. The February presentation budgeted $8.83 million for the water main: $3 million for Phase I and $5.83 million for Phase II. Funding was $8.4 million in water bonds plus a $430,000 MBTA Community Catalyst grant. The Bedford Road drainage is a separate $681,000 project paid with Chapter 90 state road funds. In March, Phase 2 went to N. Granese & Sons on a low bid of $4.26 million. The Squirrel put about $237,000 left over after engineering and contingency. The 2027 Lincoln Road repaving will also come from existing Chapter 90 money.
On Ballfield Road, the building is closed in but not open
Halfway down the water main route, the new community center is following the same pattern. The building is on the Hartwell segment of the Lincoln School campus on Ballfield Road. ICON Architecture designed it, and it is planned as the home of the Council on Aging & Human Services, Parks and Recreation, and the Lincoln Extended-day After-school Program, known as LEAP. The facility cost is $26.35 million.
The building committee reported in October that the project was on budget but a little behind schedule. Opening moved from December 2026 to spring. Rough plumbing and HVAC ductwork were done, the terra cotta siding was nearly done, and rough electrical was about 80 percent complete.
Bemis Hall stays open in the meantime and after the move. A few months after the new building opens and its use settles, the Select Board plans to form a subcommittee on Bemis Hall's future. Select Board member Kim Bodnar told a group of its users in June that the hall would remain available for their needs.
The library heats this winter on a $330,000 boiler
The Lincoln Public Library went into fall with a choice between a full replacement and a stopgap. The comprehensive option was a ground-source heat pump system. It had an estimated gross cost of $6.246 million and a net town cost of about $3.7 million after a guaranteed $1 million state grant and other incentives. At the October 24 Special Town Meeting it won a majority, 193 to 152. It still failed, because borrowing required a two-thirds vote.
The stopgap passed 224 to 102 and appropriated $330,000 for a new high-efficiency gas boiler. The Lincoln Squirrel's account of the vote puts the cost of replacing the rest of the system at $3.24 million in total, with the timing to be decided later. According to the town's pre-meeting FAQ, the boiler covers immediate heating needs. The remaining conventional work will come back to a future Town Meeting.
The library has also proposed something for its outside wall. "Lincoln Florilegium," by Lincoln resident Matthew Belge, would project portraits of Lincoln residents, images of flowers and accompanying quotations onto the exterior near the old entrance at Bedford and Trapelo roads. It would run about two hours after sunset, four nights a week, for a month-long exhibit tentatively set for February. The proposal was scheduled for a Historic District Commission public hearing on November 10. Library director Melissa Roderick told the Lincoln Squirrel that the project "takes the ideas and events that happen inside the library every day and brings them out into the community in a visible way."
March is the next deadline
Lincoln's next set of permanent decisions starts at the March Annual Town Meeting. One is a proposed $2.03 million Ballfield Road and school campus project, covering repaving, drainage, pedestrian improvements and possible changes to the intersection and slip lane. The Capital Planning Committee was to be asked to recommend it for a March vote.
The other is the town-wide roads program. A consultant estimated $18.6 million, and officials are planning around $20 million over five years. That is on top of the money already set aside for Bedford Road and Lincoln Road. Lincoln's last large repaving program cost $5.5 million and focused on main roads. Neighborhood roads have been maintained through annual Chapter 90 grants on a 15-year life cycle. Town Administrator Tim Higgins said at the State of the Town that "it's time to refresh the system." The first two years would focus mostly on main roads, with some neighborhood roads. The original plan was to request funds in March and start in spring 2027, but the Squirrel reported that timing may slip. The town could also run a two-year program and then stop to reassess.
For anyone driving between the library and Route 117 this winter, the next fixed dates are the railroad crossing work in the coming months and the community center opening in spring. The Lincoln Road surface follows in fall 2027.
If you own a home near Lincoln Road and want to plan your own exterior work or a future sale around this construction calendar, Hilary Bovey follows these town projects closely and is glad to talk through the timing with you. Let's Connect.
