Hoffman Estates waits for CN to sign off on bike trail

A key connection that would complete a largely off-road bike trail from the Northwest suburbs to Elgin is being held up because the Canadian National has not signed off on using part of its right of way, Hoffman Estates officials say.

The connection, 2.4 miles long and crossing under the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway in western Hoffman Estates, has been envisioned for more than 20 years.

There's an intergovernmental agreement in place, engineering has been done and federal funding for 80 percent of the $850,000 cost has been promised.

But with less than two years before that funding expires, the three local governments who will share the remaining 20 percent of the cost - the village of Hoffman Estates, the Hoffman Estates Park District and the Cook County Forest Preserve District - are still waiting for CN to allow the path on the right of way alongside the tracks.

Once in place, the connection will let bicyclists travel uninterrupted from eight or nine miles to the east all the way to Elgin.

Further, it provides a spur to get cyclists safely to the north side of the tollway without riding on the road, Hoffman Estates Transportation Director Mike Hankey said.

Canadian National spokesman Patrick Waldron said last week the company is continuing to discuss the right of way with the village of Hoffman Estates. Previous meetings were held in January and July 2015.

"We expect to have a resolution soon, but continue to review and discuss details of the appropriate safety measures necessary for the proposed path," Waldron said.

Hoffman Estates Village Manager Jim Norris said he takes last week's communication from CN as a sign the project will move forward.

The planned trail consists of three distinct pieces totaling 2.4 miles. The first is to pave an existing gravel trail through the Poplar Creek Forest Preserve along Shoe Factory Road west from Route 59.

The next stretch runs along the CN tracks from Shoe Factory Road to and underneath the tollway to the north.

The third will take the trail through the Prairie Stone Business Park on the north side of the tollway.

"It (the connection) has been envisioned since before I got here, and that was in 1993," Hankey said.

The Forest Preserve District of Cook County is paying 10 percent of the project - half the amount not covered by federal funding. The village and park district will split the remainder, at $42,500 each.

The federal funding was awarded in early 2013 and expires in early 2018. Getting an extension might be possible, Hankey said, but he'd prefer not to have to try.

Once work begins, it should take only a single construction season to complete, Hankey said. With the ongoing tollway construction, this is not a good year to do it, he added.

One good thing the tollway project has done for the bike trail is leave in place a concrete barrier that will eventually separate the trail from the tracks under the I-90 bridge. Fencing to separate the rest of the trail from the railroad tracks will also be needed, Hankey said.

Work on the bike trail could be done in 2017, if the Illinois Department of Transportation finishes its review in time.

U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth has loaned her influence to the project too, putting pressure on CN to talk with Hoffman Estates and get the right of way question settled, village officials said.

"As the ranking member of the Transportation Oversight Subcommittee, (she) helped ensure that the federal Surface Transportation Board facilitated communication between the village and Canadian National," Duckworth's spokesman, Ben Garmisa, said in a statement.