DuPage towns get federal cash for enhancements

Nearly $3 million in federal money will help pay for trails and streetscape enhancements in Lisle, Oak Brook, Villa Park, Warrenville and Woodridge.

The planned upgrades in those DuPage County communities are among 120 projects statewide that received a total of nearly $90 million in federal cash through a state-run program, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation.

Officials said the Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program is meant to improve the quality of life in the state by “promoting alternative transportation, such as bike and hike trails, streetscape and beautification, and preserving transportation resources.”

The roughly $994,000 Warrenville received will help pay for landscaping and other improvements when IDOT widens Butterfield Road through the city.

“We really want that road expansion,” City Administrator John Coakley said. “But we also don't want to split the town in half with a major barrier.”

So Warrenville has a streetscape plan for Butterfield Road that includes landscaping upgrades, new signs and traffic signal upgrades at Route 59 and Batavia Road.

“In our terms, it's an enhancement to their (IDOT's) project,” Coakley said.

IDOT is expected next spring to start reconstructing and widening Butterfield from Naperville Road in Wheaton to Route 59 in Warrenville. That work is expected to be completed in November 2012 and cost $69.8 million.

Coakley said Warrenville is still trying to calculate how much its streetscape plan will cost.

In order to receive the federal funds, the communities need to provide some matching dollars and start work on their projects within three years.

Oak Brook officials estimate that the roughly $569,000 the village received will pay about 80 percent of the cost for its 22nd Street beautification project.

The village wants to install decorative lights, median plantings and other enhancements along a stretch that runs from Spring Road to Salt Creek.

Village Manager David Niemeyer said the project had been on hold because of budgetary concerns. “Fortunately, now we have been able to get grant money for it,” he said.

Villa Park officials also said they were grateful for the roughly $900,000 the village received for streetscape enhancements along Ardmore Avenue. The work will include decorative lights, new sidewalks and improved landscaping.

Meanwhile, about $514,000 will pay for engineering work related to a planned multiuse trail in south Lisle and Woodridge.

Once built, the 5.4-mile South Lisle Woodridge Trail will run between Maple Avenue and Hobson Road. It will be one piece of a longer north-south trail that will bisect central DuPage.

Deborah Fagan, the county's trail system coordinator, said the goal is to eventually have the 31-mile East Branch DuPage River Greenway Trail run from Bloomingdale to Woodridge.

“We're linking together a number of destinations,” Fagan said, “so people can get out their cars and either walk or bicycle to these places more easily and safely.”