When you walk the river from downtown Haverhill, which bridge do you cross first? Until this month the answer mostly depended on where you parked. Through the fall, and likely for years after, the Comeau Bridge is the better choice. The two ends of the loop are heading in opposite directions in the same two weeks.
The loop runs along the Rep. Brian S. Dempsey Boardwalk on the downtown bank, across the Sgt. Joseph C. Comeau Bridge into Bradford, along the Bradford Rail Trail, and back over the PFC Ralph T. Basiliere Bridge on Route 125. Local walking guides have described that circuit for years. On Saturday, October 3, the Comeau end gets a formally dedicated park with its own riverfront boardwalk. During the week of October 12, MassDOT expects to send Bradford Rail Trail users onto a detour at the Basiliere end. One end of the loop gains a reason to stop just as the other end turns into a work zone.
The Comeau end becomes a place to stop
First Nations Park sits at 236 S. Elm St. in Bradford, where Railroad Avenue, Elm Street, and the Comeau Bridge meet. It occupies the former Haverhill Skateland site, which was a Bradford landmark for seven decades. Procopio Companies built the park and gave it to the city under the agreement to develop The Beck, the 290-unit apartment and commercial project next door. The city's Native American Commemorative Task Force chose the name in 2023. The task force is chaired by Haverhill Poet Laureate Daniel Speers.
The park has a children's play structure, shaded picnic tables, an outdoor performance area, and access to a boardwalk along the river. WHAV reports that from the boardwalk you can watch for sturgeon and bass in the water and for eagles and osprey overhead. Downtown's waterfront is mostly boardwalk, so this is the first stretch of the loop with somewhere to sit and stay a while. Speers has called it "the first park exclusively dedicated to remembering and honoring the culture, heritage and stewardship of the indigenous people who lived and prospered in pre-colonial America," and he points to archaeological evidence on this part of the Merrimack going back more than 13,000 years.
The free public dedication begins at 10 a.m. Saturday on the riverfront. Mayor Melinda E. Barrett will preside. Taking part are Speers; Larry Spotted Crow Mann, an enrolled citizen of the Hassanamisco Nipmuc Tribe of Massachusetts and executive director of the Ohketeau Cultural Center; and state officials from Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The program includes sacred ceremonial practices and a reading from the poet laureate. Parking is free at the nearby Bradford Rail Station.
"This river carries a significant meaning to Nipmuc people and to our Pennacook relatives, who are so deeply interrelated in this region. Our ancestors came to these waterways to fish, trade, travel and gather for ceremonial gatherings." Larry Spotted Crow Mann, speaking to WHAV
As of an April 2026 WHAV report, all of The Beck's retail space was still vacant, so for now the new park is the destination on this corner.
The Basiliere end starts a long squeeze
The Basiliere Bridge was built in 1925. According to MassDOT, its replacement has been under construction since summer 2026 and is expected to continue through spring 2032. The new bridge is going up in two phases, and during construction the river crossing will keep one lane in each direction and one sidewalk. The design-build team is Middlesex Corporation and TranSystems, working under Contract 129076, which MassDOT's board summary values at $214,980,800.
This week the project moves into Stage 1A, the first change that walkers on the loop will feel directly. Here are the dates MassDOT has posted:
- Weekdays this week, 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The western, upstream sidewalk on the bridge is part of the work zone while crews move National Grid and Verizon cables. Pedestrians are sent to the eastern sidewalk.
- 9 p.m. October 1 to 5 a.m. October 2. The bridge narrows to one alternating lane under a police detail while the Stage 1A work zone is set up.
- Starting at 5 a.m. October 2. Drivers can no longer turn left from the bridge onto Merrimack Street. The signed detour runs via Bailey Boulevard and Emerson Street.
- After Stage 1A is in place. The bridge has one lane in each direction, and the western sidewalk closes for this stage. Pedestrians use the eastern sidewalk.
- Week of October 12. The Bradford Rail Trail is expected to detour, sending cyclists and pedestrians through the intersection of Route 125 and Middlesex Street.
For now, the lookahead says the rail trail is "operating as normal" and that access to the Dempsey Boardwalk is normal. While crews build the trail detour, expect brief pauses for equipment and follow the flagger's directions. MassDOT also asks pedestrians to follow every cone and barrel. In its words, "What may appear to be a safe sidewalk at one end of the bridge can lead to an active construction area forcing you to walk in the road." Anyone on foot can ask the police detail for help crossing the intersections at either end of the bridge. The agency notes that its schedule can change without notice, so the current week's lookahead on the MassDOT Basiliere Bridge updates page is the one to trust.
The loop isn't broken. One sidewalk stays open across the bridge, and the trail gets a detour, not a closure. The Basiliere end is still the half with intersections, barrels, and daytime lane shifts, though, and that will be true for several seasons.
Which way to walk it this fall
With the park finished at one end and construction at the other, the route almost picks itself. Start at the Comeau Bridge and leave the Basiliere crossing for the return, or skip it.
- Downtown to Bradford. The Dempsey Boardwalk was extended in 2020 to connect Harbor Place to Washington Square. At that time, carrying it along Washington Street to the Comeau Bridge was described as a future goal. From Washington Square you continue on downtown sidewalks to the end of Washington Street and cross the Comeau.
- The Bradford landing. The park is at the Bradford end of the Comeau Bridge, and the Bradford Rail Trail entrance is on South Elm Street just past it.
- The trail. The Bradford Rail Trail follows the Merrimack between the Comeau and Basiliere bridges. The city and the Friends of the Bradford Rail Trail created it on land the city bought in 2008. A 2022 state-funded extension added about 1,100 feet past the Basiliere Bridge toward Railroad Street, with 10-foot-wide paths and new lighting.
- The return. From the week of October 12, the Basiliere end runs through the Route 125 and Middlesex Street intersection, and the bridge crossing uses the eastern sidewalk. Walking back out and over the Comeau keeps the outing almost entirely off the work zone.
MassDOT's planners have been aware of how much this loop matters. A 2023 MassDOT briefing memo includes a project team member describing the connections between the Basiliere Bridge, the Comeau Bridge, the rail trail, and the boardwalk: "We want to strengthen that loop and its connections, particularly where the Basiliere connects to the Bradford Rail Trail." So the Basiliere end is meant to come out of construction better connected to the trail. Until it does, the Comeau end is where the loop is easiest to use.
Dinner on the downtown bank
The loop ends where it started, at Harbor Place, which has added another place to eat on the water this year. On The Corner Grill opened for dinner in June in a new storefront at Harbor Place Residences, 28–44 Merrimack St. It's a sister to George and Sthefany Chiachio's restaurant of the same name in Derry, New Hampshire, and serves the same Italian-inspired menu. It has an outdoor patio facing the courtyard it shares with Barrio Haverhill. Barrio's Haverhill location at 2 Merrimack St. has the same courtyard and the same view of the river. In June, Chiachio told WHAV he expected to add lunch "soon," so check current hours before you plan a midday walk around it.
Harbor Place sits at the downtown end of the boardwalk, and the Basiliere work is focused at the Route 125 and Merrimack Street intersection a short distance away. MassDOT says the businesses reached from the western sidewalk near the bridge stay open to pedestrians during this stage. If you're driving to dinner from Bradford, the left-turn ban that starts October 2 means following the Bailey Boulevard and Emerson Street detour to reach Merrimack Street.
Saturday's plan is simple: park free at Bradford Rail Station, attend the 10 a.m. dedication at First Nations Park, walk the boardwalk, and cross the Comeau to Merrimack Street for lunch or an early dinner.
Projects like the Basiliere replacement change how a neighborhood works day to day long before anyone notices them on a map, and we follow them closely across the Merrimack Valley and the Seacoast. If you'd like to understand how a six-year bridge project or a new riverfront park affects your part of Haverhill, the team at Brick & Barn Real Estate is glad to talk it through.