New bike trail coming to Carol Stream?

Carol Stream will seek grant funding to study the best route for a bike and pedestrian path that would link the village's southeastern neighborhoods to the Great Western Trail and businesses on Schmale Road.

At the earliest, the village wouldn't begin to build the trail until 2020. But in the short term, village engineers are preparing to apply for grants that could cover about two-thirds of the project's price tag.

Designing, acquiring land and construction could, conservatively, cost nearly $2.07 million, Assistant Village Engineer Bill Cleveland said.

Later this month, the village will apply for a federal grant administered by the Illinois Department of Transportation that would help pay for the first phase of a study to determine the course of the proposed 6,200-foot-long trail.

The village has mapped out a "very preliminary" route that shows a 10-foot-wide path running south on President Street and connecting the Great Western Trail with the village-owned Community Park.

From there, the path would continue west on Gundersen Drive - or possibly Thornhill Drive, Cleveland said - and turn south on Schmale Road.

The path would ultimately end at the village's southern border with Wheaton at Geneva Road - providing access for bicyclists or pedestrians to retailers and restaurants.

Several trustees asked Monday if the project would run into any obstacles with acquiring privately-owned land to pave the way for the path.

The results of the first study will answer those questions, but the village hopes to install as much of the path on public right of way along roads, Cleveland said.

"It's going to be an issue with Schmale Road," he told trustees. "It looks like there's just enough right of way to get a 10-foot path in there, but it might take some massaging."

A second study by engineers would dive deeper into the design.

An application for another grant that would finance some construction costs is due in August. If the funding requests are approved, the village's share could total roughly $673,000.

That money would be paid out of a village fund for maintaining infrastructure and other projects.

The village expects the new path would be well-received among bicyclists, given the popularity of a system of asphalt trails on Carol Stream's north side.

"It's something that would be very useful," Cleveland said.