The long-awaited replacement for the bathrooms along the Cochituate Aqueduct at Hunnewell Field in Wellesley have arrived. More work is needed before they are open for business, but it looks like we’re most of the way there (we’ll be getting an update this coming week).

We very much look forward to the ~~ribbon~~ toilet paper cutting ceremony.

aqueduct bathroom — Photo courtesy of MC

Natural Resources Commission Director Brandon Schmitt and NRC Chair Jay McHale have given updates at public meetings this month somewhat confidently assuring that the bathrooms were really on their way this month or next.

As Community Preservation Committee Chair Barbara McMahon told Town Meeting back in fall of 2020, before Town Meeting approved more than half a million dollars to fund the bathrooms, this project had been on the town’s radar for at least 16 years at that point (We’ve included a couple of slides from that presentation below, outlining the project’s history until that point.)

The town has had many starts and stops on this project, which have been intertwined with efforts to get bathrooms installed at the Hunnewell Track & Field complex as well (that effort continues, with a 10-unit bathroom/concession stand combo the latest iteration).

Proposals for the aqueduct bathroom have included using a portable trailer and shipping container model, but a pre-cast concrete style won out.

The plumbers have now done their thing and the bathroom facility has been installed.

We’ll refrain from doing a “first look” post on the bathrooms, as we often do with restaurants and other new facilities. This will be better experienced in private.