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| North Branch bike trail gets a face-lift | |
| Jul 16, 2007 | |
| Dan Gibbard, staff reporter dgibbard@tribune.com | |
| Chicago Tribune | |
| Pertains to North Branch Trail, Chicago, Glencoe, Morton Grove, Northfield, Glenview, Niles | |
| Project under way to rebuild 20-mile path Having ridden the North Branch Bicycle Trail since the 1970s, Mike Cobb knows the path like he knows his own driveway. And that's a good thing because, in recent years, potholes have deepened, ruts have widened and tree-root ridges have grown higher. "I know where most of them are, but every once in a while, you find yourself daydreaming and you hit one and 'whack,'" said Cobb, 60, who lives close to the trail's southern end at Caldwell and Devon Avenues in Chicago. "It's such a nice path, and it has so much potential. It just needs to be fixed up." Cobb and the legions of riders who sometimes make the trail look like a family-speed Tour de France are about to get their wish as the Cook County Forest Preserve District began work last week on a $2.2 million project to rebuild the 20-mile path . "We're going to start almost from scratch," said Joe Mollica, engineering assistant for the district's Planning and Development Department. The money is coming from a 2005 bond issue, he said. Construction began at the north end, at Dundee Road in Glencoe, and workers will make their way south. The project is scheduled to last through early October, and the trail will be closed in approximately milelong stretches for the repaving, Mollica said. A dirt trail that parallels the paved trail for part of its length will not be affected. Preserve officials noticed during a resurfacing several years ago that some parts of the trail were built too thin, with only 1.5 inches of asphalt instead of road-quality 3 inches, Mollica said. The path needs to be built the same as a street because it needs to carry maintenance trucks and sometimes ambulances, he said. "We're trying to correct a few mistakes that were made years ago," Mollica said. Cobb's pet peeve is a stretch between Golf and Beckwith Roads [Morton Grove], where tree roots protrude several inches, buckling the asphalt. "I can't imagine people haven't gone down there," he said. The problem, Mollica said, is that the trail bed is so narrow at that point that the path was built much closer to trees than it should have been. "When the trees started growing, the roots just went crazy," he said. The only solution was to remove some of the trees, a move approved by district foresters, who said they were not important in age or species, Mollica said. To the riders and in-line skaters who have been waiting years for a smooth ride, Mollica had a promise for the new trail: "Perfect." |
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