The Chicago Deptartment of Transportation announced it has received $979,600 towards a bridge to link the east and west legs of the North Shore Channel trail. The trail jumps the river at Lincoln Avenue near the Lincoln Village shopping center.
Cyclists and pedestrians on the trail had to exit the trail, cross Lincoln Ave bridge and descend back to the river level to proceed on the trail. An off street path along the river extends from Lawrence Ave north to Lincoln on the east side of the river. On the west side of the river the path ends in River Park, with connections on Carmen Street as far west as Ayers.
The bike path continues north along the channel to Green Bay Road in Evanston, a distance of about 6.75 miles from Lawrence Ave.
No off street path exists between Lawrence and Montrose Ave. Cyclists are directed to follow Manor Ave and California Ave between Ronan Park and Horner Park.
As previously discussed in The Bulldog, a $7.1 million connection is planned from California Park to Belmont using a bridge at Grace and a trail through Clark Park. If the trail is completed between Belmont and Green Bay Road, there would be about 9 miles of trail, including about 3/4 mile of on street trail.
I am so excited about this. I’ve always found that gap in the trail to be so awkward.
[...] CDOT gets $1 million for North Shore Channel Trail Bike Bridge (Bulldog) [...]
$1 mil just to build a pedestrian bridge? I’m all for the improvement, but this seems awfully excessive for such a small project. Who’s getting all the kickbacks from this one?