In the past couple of years I’ve discovered and made use of the bicycle/pedestrian bridge over Route 20 on the Bloomingdale-Roselle border, seen above. The bridge provides a safe way to keep going north or south on the North Central DuPage Regional Bikeway; I’ve used it to ride from south Schaumburg into Glendale Heights, Carol Stream, Glen Ellyn and Wheaton.
With all the busy roads in the suburbs, such bridges definitely are handy and even life-saving. So there’s no question we could use more of them. One big problem with that: Each one costs millions.
I don’t know the cost of this Route 20 bridge, but another, newer bridge I use all the time, along Roselle Road over Central Road in Schaumburg by the Paul Douglas Forest Preserve, finished with a cost of $4.6 million five years ago. Another bridge I use a lot, crossing County Farm Road to connect the Mallard Lake and Hawk Hollow forest preserves in DuPage County near Hanover Park, cost $3.5 million to build in 2016. A nearby river branch contributed to the cost, while also creating a path over the Addams Tollway added to the Roselle Road bridge cost in Schaumburg.
It’s part of the overall difficulty with creating bike bridges and even on-the-ground trails. But organizations like the League of American Bicyclists provide perspective and guidance to any municipality or agency seeking the needed funding.
Now residents have been getting excited about a new bike/pedestrian bridge scheduled to come to Streamwood by the end of this year. It will be built over Route 59 just north of Irving Park Road, giving residents a safe way back and forth between places like Streamwood High School, Streamwood Oaks Golf Club, a couple of parks and nearby stores.
The bridge is part of a larger Bartlett & Streamwood Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan, created with the assistance of the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. Residents were surveyed to tell the planners how they get around the village and would like to, especially without needing to drive. The result is an ambitious plan with a lot of trail work in its sights.
In addition to creating and extending neighborhood trails (so residents can actually get to the bridge, for one), the plan envisions a longer off-road path along Irving Park Road. The path would be huge in achieving one broader goal: connecting bicycling options to the west like the Fox River Trail to bike systems in the east like Schaumburg’s. That helps not just in recreation but also in work transportation that wouldn’t require cars.
The work doesn’t come cheap. CMAP put the total costs of all the plans at $26.6 million. Nearly $30 million in plans were created for Bartlett, too. The Streamwood Route 59 bridge itself? The overall plan was part of the village’s 2018 Comprehensive Plan, which conservatively estimated the bridge itself would cost $4.7 million.
But the village says now that 80% of the funding is coming from federal and state infrastructure grants.
And residents are glad. They have been eager to see the bridge get done after years of discussion. It’s a story that is playing out repeatedly all over the suburbs as the work continues to build bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure. More bridges are planned for Mount Prospect, Roselle and McHenry, among other projects costing at least $1.5 million that got state funding in 2023. Another bridge is now being planned off Busse Woods across Arlington Heights Road for a whopping $9 million.
Meanwhile, that Route 20 bridge not only gets us across that busy road but provides some twisty fun from Rosedale Avenue on the north and William Way on the south. Watch …
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