(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Runners, walkers and bikers should have an easier time navigating the Des Plaines River Trail, now that a $12.5 million improvement project has been completed.
Cook County Forest Preserves leaders and mayors from surrounding suburbs celebrated by cutting a red ribbon in a picnic grove at Robinson Woods.
Interim General Superintendent Eileen Figel said one of their most popular trails now has a pedestrian bridge, a boardwalk in an area that frequently flooded and is wider in spots.
Forest Preserves President Toni Preckwinkle said the changes will make the trail safer, more enjoyable and better connected to local communities.
This section connects with Rosemont, where Mayor Brad Stephens says a pedestrian bridge installed over the Des Plaines River three years ago is heavily used by hotel guests.
“There was a section of the trail that was defined, but not developed, so to say,” Stephens said. “Now, with this, this has really created some uniformity of the path.”
The project, which runs between Lawrence and Touhy Avenues, was funded by a combination of local, county and federal dollars — and Figel said the Cook County Forest Preserves are not done.
“All told, we expect to invest more than $70 million in improvements for this 28-mile trail system, including improvements to address flooding and improve safety between Irving Park and North Avenue,” Figel said.
Construction on the next phase, which heads south to River Grove, is slated to begin in the fall.
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