PEABODY-Community Development Senior Planner Blair Haney updated City Councilors Thursday night on the status of the highly anticipated, 18-year old Bikeway project.Crews have begun cutting down trees and bushes along Lowell Street, making way for 4.6 miles of a 10-foot wide asphalt path with two-foot shoulders made of crushed stone. Haney said nearly 25 feet of vegetation has been cut thus far and installation of silt fences and haybales will follow in an effort to prevent erosion. Haney expects this phase of the project to be completed within the next few weeks.The path will follow the old abandoned railroad tracks from the Middleton/Peabody line all the way to the Lahey Clinic. It will travel along the Ipswich River, wrap around Crystal Lake and Elginwood Pond, continue down Lowell Street past the High School and Brooksby Farm, and come to an end outside the Lahey Clinic, just before the Salem line.The project will cost about $3 million, much of which was funded through state and federal grants. The city?s Community Preservation Committee contributed $162,000.?The (Community Preservation Act), once again, came through in a big way,” said Mayor Michael Bonfanti previously. “The Bikeway is a great spine to our citywide open space network. We will continue to add great recreation opportunities along the Bikeway for decades to come.”Depending on how kind Mother Nature is in the coming months, crews should begin laying down the asphalt and crushed stone by the spring. The entire project, constructed by the New Hampshire-based S&R Construction, is slated for completion by spring 2009.Administrative changes throughout the state government originally delayed the financial aspect of the project, as did studies conducted by MassHighway to ensure the land would always be used as a bike path. Concerns over the effects of the asphalt on the environment and the safety of the people utilizing a path that winds around busy routes 1, 114, and 95, also brought things to a lull.Just a few weeks ago, councilors were unsure of the affect Aggregate Industries frequent blast schedule would have on bikers traveling the nearby path. An employee of the excavation company reported last night that signs would be placed along the walls of the quarry to warn passersby of upcoming blasting.Another concern arose over how the path would cross the highway – an issue Haney said has not yet been resolved, but plans are in the making.Bonfanti will host an official groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday, March 27 at 3 p.m. All members of the public are invited to intend.