Carol Stream OKs study for new bike path
With an established system of bike trails on the northwest side of town, Carol Stream is shifting gears to start plans on a new path serving the village's southernmost neighborhoods.
Trustees have approved a $159,933 preliminary engineering study into a bike path that would connect residents in apartment complexes near Community Park to businesses on Schmale Road to the west and the Great Western Trail to the north.
The village already has won approval for an up to $1.02 million grant that will pay for 80 percent of the construction costs. The village also will apply for a grant that would cover 80 percent, or $751,200, of the $939,000 in expected costs for a final phase of engineering, construction management and property acquisitions.
The first engineering study by TranSystems Corp. should take a year to complete. "Optimistically," the village would not break ground until 2019, but construction would more likely start in 2020, Engineering Services Director Jim Knudsen said.
Under the proposed route, the 10-foot-wide, asphalt path would head south from the Great Western Trail along the east side of President Street to Gundersen Drive, where it would connect into existing trails at Community Park. Farther south, the path would run along the west side of President Street from the park to Geneva Road.
Another branch would continue along Gundersen Drive to the west side of Schmale Road, where it would turn south and end at the village's southern border with Wheaton at Geneva Road.
The path would provide access to a busy commercial corridor on Schmale for residents in multifamily and age-restricted housing along Gundersen, President and Thornhill Drive.
"We have a large portion of the northwest side covered, but nothing on the southeast," Knudsen said of the village's trail system. "There's a lot of residents down there, multifamily and age-restricted housing, so we want to be able to provide them with some of the same opportunities."
On the northwest side of town, the village is putting the last few touches on a $2.4 million project to build a path along Fair Oaks Road. Those include drainage improvements for the rear lots of homes along Magnolia Way.
One segment extends the West Branch DuPage River Trail trail east on St. Charles Road and continues north to Fair Oaks and Lies roads. From there, the section of the path is considered separate from the river trail and ends at Army Trail Road.
Crews should be done with their work in a couple of weeks and plan to return in the spring to check trees they've planted and "touch things up," Knudsen said. But the path that extends the trail east on St. Charles Road and continues north to Fair Oaks and Lies roads, where the existing system picks up at the forest preserve's entrance. is open for pedestrians and biking.
About $1.87 million in grants financed most of the project. The village and the Wayne Township Road District each contributed about $166,000, while the DuPage County Forest Preserve District kicked in $198,000.
Two other projects are under design to extend the asphalt path installed along Lies Road in 2006 and to extend another path along Kuhn Road.