The Lincolnwood Village Board recently approved several finishing touches to a $4.5 million bridge that will connect the almost-finished Valley Line Trail bike path between the north and south sides of Touhy Avenue.
Trustees on Aug. 16 finalized the design of the steel bridge, unanimously accepting a July recommendation from the Lincolnwood Parks and Recreation Board to add 24-inch “Village of Lincolnwood” lettering and a village logo visible to motorists traveling east and west along Touhy.
Scheduled to open in spring 2018, the overpass will connect the one-mile stretch of bike trail joining Lincolnwood to Chicago and Skokie. The bridge has been envisioned by Lincolnwood officials as the centerpiece of the bike path, which will lead from the Chicago-Lincolnwood border at Devon Avenue to the Lincolnwood-Skokie border at Lincoln and Jarvis avenues.
The 12-foot-wide asphalt Valley Line bike path is under construction on land that was once occupied by railroad tracks, according to the village, which is leasing the parcel from ComEd. The $1 million path is expected to be open in September, according to Andrew Letson, assistant to the public works director.
Another $950,000 path, known as the Union Pacific Bicycle Path Project, is under construction on the east side of the village and is expected to open in November.
The final spoke in the overall bike path plan is the 10-foot-tall steel bridge, which has been in the works since 2011 when Lincolnwood was awarded a state grant for $1.4 million to cover 80 percent of the project costs.
But by the time engineers began designing the bridge in 2013, estimated construction costs jumped to $3.7 million, prompting the village to seek additional funding from the same type of state program — the Congestion and Air Quality grant.
The request was approved, bringing the state’s coverage of the bridge project to nearly $3.6 million. The village was responsible for the remaining $893,000, according to the Lincolnwood Public Works Department.
The final designs that village board members approved show reddish-colored steel bars stretching across Touhy and connecting to tan-colored brick pillars on either side of the street. White-colored LED lighting illuminates the pillars from the ground up, with landscaping surrounding both ends of the bridge.
Lincolnwood Mayor Jerry Turry stressed the importance of the visibility of the “Village of Lincolnwood” lettering that will span the length of the bridge. Touhy Avenue is one of the village’s busiest thoroughfares with around 40,000 vehicles passing by each day, according to the village.
Board members chose 24-inch letters, instead of an 18-inch version presented by bridge engineers Stanley Consultants.
“I made a mistake a long time ago when I was a trustee and had to choose the street signs,” Turry said. “They looked fine (when they were approved) but we found out we couldn’t see them in the dark. I’m not going through that again.”
In the past, the proposal for the overpass bridge was met with opposition by some residents from nearby condo building Barclay Place. Condo residents there cited concerns with privacy, safety, construction noise and aesthetics during a series of public hearings since 2014.
Opposition to the bridge seems to have dwindled since. No one from the public spoke on the matter at the Aug. 16 village board meeting.
Construction crews are expected to start building the bridge in fall 2017, the public works officials said.
Natalie Hayes is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.