Dividing the lakefront trail into separate paths for cyclists and pedestrians to help ease congestion and reduce collisions moved a step forward Wednesday when the Chicago Park District board approved a $1.7 million contract for engineering and design services.
The approval of the two-year, $1.7 million contract with AECOM, a Los Angeles-based engineering design firm with offices in Chicago, follows a $12 million donation from billionaire Ken Griffin to fund the completion of the split for the entire lakefront trail, which is expected to be completed in 2018.
Safety on the trail, which is heavily used in the summer with an estimated 100,000 people per weekend day, has long been a concern for users of the path.
Under the contract with the Park District, covered by Griffin’s donation, AECOM would develop renderings, participate in community meetings, prepare cost estimates and create plans for rerouting trail users during construction. Additionally, the company would look at landscape design, conduct utility surveys and identify whether any sewer, water or electric lines may have to be relocated. AECOM also provided lead engineering services for the new runway at O’Hare International Airport, 31st Street Harbor and the pedestrian bridges at 41st and 43rd streets that connect to the lakefront.
The Park District anticipates starting construction this spring on full trail separation and expects Griffin’s gift to cover the cost of the entire project, spokeswoman Jessica Maxey-Faulkner said in an email.
"The bicycle trail would accommodate primarily patrons using the (lakefront) park to bike to work or bike through the park without having to weave in and out of slower-paced walkers and joggers," according to a Park District document. "The pedestrian trail would be designated for people using the park for walking, jogging and pushing strollers."
Some segments of the 18-mile-long lakefront trail from Ardmore Avenue on the north and 71st Street on the south already have separate paths for cyclists and pedestrians.
The trail near Fullerton Parkway has had two separate paths since November 2015, part of a bigger project to add six acres of parkland along the lakefront and install a concrete sea wall to protect the shoreline.
In March 2016, the city said it planned to extend separate trails from Fullertonsouth to Ohio Street and divide it between31st and51st streets . Some work on the south leg of the trail began last summer, and separation has been completed from 31st to 35th streets.
The North Side stretch from Fullerton to Ohio was expected to be trickier to design because there’s not much room in some areas for separate spaces for cyclists and pedestrians. For example, the lakefront trail over the narrow Diversey Harbor bridge will be a single path, Maxey-Faulkner said.
The section of the lakefront trail between Ohio Street beach to just south of the Chicago River, known as the Navy Pier flyover, is under construction and will have separate lanes along one path for cyclists and pedestrians.
lvivanco@chicagotribune.com
Twitter: @lvivanco
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
