River Street Extension

River Street Extension is the short dead end at the western end of River Street, beyond the River Pines neighborhood, which was once the last stretch of River Street on its way to Treble Cove Road. It shares River Street's history. That road was the 1658 "west street" of the Township from Long Street to the Concord River, carried across the river by the Centre bridge of 1737, the Middle Bridge, and known for more than a century as "the road over the middle bridge" before the name River Street came into use in the 1880s. The street list accepted at town meeting on March 27, 1899 gave "River street, from Boston road running westerly to Treble Cove road, Billerica," so this piece was then part of River Street, and so it remained in the list of accepted streets printed in 1956.

The western end of River Street lay near the crossing of the old Middlesex Turnpike, and in 1914 the town was asked for $400 for "widening River Street (between the old Middlesex Turnpike and Treble Cove Road)." It was rebuilt as part of the county relocation of River Street ordered on October 20, 1933 and June 12, 1934, whose 1934 sheets carry the new location westerly past Avondale, Sprucewood, Cypress and Laurel Avenues, and in 1936 the whole road was "tarred and honed from Treble Cove Road to the Concord River."

The new Route 3, laid out by the state as a limited access highway in 1952 and 1953, cut across the end of River Street east of Treble Cove Road. The piece left west of the junction near Rosewood Avenue became a dead end, and River Street was carried on to Treble Cove Road by another way. The name River Street Extension for the cut off end is found by 1963, when the water department laid "River Street Extension - 6'' - 925 feet," and residents' addresses are given on "River St. Ext." in the town lists of the 1970s. The water department's accounts of 1952 and 1953 also carry the heading "River Street Extension," but there the words seem to mean an extension of the water main on River Street. In 2006 town meeting was asked to grant Verizon an easement to serve the "Proposed New Water Treatment Plant on River Street Extension," on a parcel "situated at the end of River Street Extension."

The town formally accepted River Street Extension as a public way at the Fall Town Meeting of October 2016, which voted, 124 to 19, to accept the 57 roads "the layout of which is shown on the official Town of Billerica Map of 1831." The list gives it "River Street Extension | River Street | Dead End," and lists the old Middlesex Turnpike as running from the Concord River to a dead end "passing River Street Extension." The street was repaved in 2024.

References

1. Annual Report 1900: street list accepted March 27, 1899, "River street, from Boston road running westerly to Treble Cove road, Billerica"
2. Annual Report 1956: streets accepted by the town, River St. from Boston Rd. west to Treble Cove Rd.
3. Annual Report 1936: River Street tarred and honed from Treble Cove Road to the Concord River
4. Annual Report 1963: water main extensions, River Street Extension 6 inch, 925 feet
5. Annual Report 1973: residents listed on River St. Ext.
6. Annual Report 2006: warrant article for a Verizon easement to the proposed new water treatment plant at the end of River Street Extension
7. Annual Report 2017: warrant for Article 36, the 1831 list of roads, River Street Extension from River Street to dead end
8. Annual Report 2017: Fall Town Meeting, October 2016, Article 36 accepts the roads on the 1831 map as public ways (124 to 19)
9. Massachusetts state highway layouts in Billerica, including Route 3 layouts 3937 (1952) and 4072 (1953)