Site work and paving for a mixed-use development in Salisbury Beach, Massachusetts. Completed plans call for site work for a road / highway; for paving for a road / highway; and transportation facility.

A local construction company, SPS New England, has been awarded a $6.5 million contract by the state to build the Eastern Marsh Trail portion of the Coastal Trails network beginning this spring. In an email, Massachusetts Department of Transportation spokesman Patrick Marvin said SPS New England is expected to begin work on the project in the spring with a completion date of summer 2021. The 2.3-mile rail trail extension would run from Mudnock Road to the Massachusetts-New Hampshire line. "This is a big deal," Coastal Trails Coalition President Jerry Klima said. "This will extend our Eastern Marsh Trail north, across Route 110. It will connect to the Ghost Trail. There will be a bridge across Route 1 at Lafayette Road where the old railroad once was. It will then connect to the (Salisbury Elementary School) and the (Partridge Brook Park) behind it. Then, it will go up to the New Hampshire border." Klima's nonprofit group has been working with the state, the towns of Salisbury and Newbury, and the cities of Amesbury and Newburyport to build the 30-mile public trail system since the early 2000s. Klima said access ramps to the Eastern Marsh Trail would be built on either side of Lafayette Road and at the Salisbury Elementary School parking lot. "It will all be connected up so that people can come and go," he said. Earlier this week, Town Manager Neil Harrington told selectmen the Eastern Marsh Trail project "is really exciting." As of May 21, 2019, this project has been awarded. A firm timeline for construction has not been determined.