The bridge Streamwood residents have been waiting for is open at last, after a ribbon-cutting Oct. 25 complete with luminaries and the first bicyclists and pedestrians to cross over Route 59.
It appeared a hundred or two attended the ceremony. By the afternoon, the neighborhoods on both sides of Route 59 cleared out and a few people got to have a good look at the bridge and its surroundings.
Long boardwalks lead up to the bridge on both sides. The east one has only a slight curve from Madison Drive, while the west ramp has a big curve south to meet a long existing neighborhood trail. Planks, said to be precast concrete, make up the boardwalks, and they are a little bumpy.
Then it’s cement on the bridge itself, also maybe slightly bumpy here and there. Pavement off the ramps to connect to both Madison Drive on the east and the neighborhood trail on the west still had to be completed as of opening day.
A neat feature on the bridge: two sizable overlooking over the prairie and wetlands. One is on the eastern side of the bridge, and another is on the west boardwalk.
The bridge is part of a larger Bartlett & Streamwood Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan, created with the assistance of the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. CMAP put the total costs of all the Streamwood plans, which included new trails, at $26.6 million. The village’s 2018 Comprehensive Plan conservatively estimated the bridge itself would cost $4.7 million, but Village Manager Sharon Caddigan told the Daily Herald the total cost was $12 million. (See the paper’s great drone shots of the bridge.)
Here’s what a ride back and forth across the bridge looked like on opening day.
Where does it take you?
A lot of people ask, what does this bridge connect and where do you go after taking it? It’s true that access points are not in obvious, common locations other than to locals.
The new bridge is just north of Irving Park Road, running along a branch of Poplar Creek. It connects two Streamwood neighborhoods, giving residents west of Route 59 a safe path to places like Streamwood High School, Streamwood Oaks Golf Club, a couple of parks and nearby stores. The eastern residents get access to the trail system in the triangle on the west formed by Route 59, Schaumburg Road and Irving Park Road.
Access from the east comes within a neighborhood off Irving Park Road. A new trail was built along Madison Drive, which is accessible off Irving Park but also from Streamwood Boulevard to the east. Streamwood Boulevard is a mostly bike-friendly street that provides a way for Streamwood residents to the east, as well as Schaumburg and Hanover Park riders, to get to the bridge.
Then on the west, the bridge links right to the neighborhood trails, which can take you to the scenic and peaceful Columbia Park with some ponds and prairie, or to neighborhood streets.
Then what? Yes, that remains a question to the west for more long-range cyclists. They could hop onto Irving Park Road for a bit and find their way to the Fox River Trail. A path along Irving Park already exists on the edge of that Streamwood triangle, but it doesn’t continue past Schaumburg Road.
The village’s 2018 Comprehensive Plan envisions connecting farther west to Elgin (below), making it possible to ride (safely) from the Fox River to Busse Woods east of Schaumburg, but no such plans are imminent.
Getting to DuPage trails
Can Streamwood’s new bridge help you get to the nearby Poplar Creek Trail? Or even the Great Western Trail and Illinois Prairie Path in DuPage County? In roundabout ways, yes, especially if you’re comfortable riding in some traffic.
Getting north to the paved Poplar Creek Trail (as opposed to the gravel and dirt hiking and horse trails that are suitable really only for mountain and serious gravel bikers) is harder than it ought to be. The best way would be off the east end of the bridge, onto the Madison Drive path and to Streamwood Boulevard, then crossing Bartlett Road and turning left at Oltendorf Road to get to Schaumburg Road; across the street a path would take you back west to the Poplar Creek Trail.
It’s a long way to the Great Western Trail and Prairie Path, but if you ride long, you can do it. Again you would take the Madison Drive path but keep on it south across Irving Park Road.
You would make your way to the path along Route 59, such as via the path around Oak Ridge Park and/or Oak Ridge Drive to High Point Lane. Once the Route 59 path takes you south past Route 20, you’ll see “Bike Route” signs that will lead you through a neighborhood to downtown Bartlett.
Doing this in reverse is, of course, how Bartlett residents can get to Streamwood’s bridge and west trails.
After going through the downtown, you can take the path along West Bartlett Road. That takes you all the way west to Munger Road, which has a path that will take you south to Stearns Road.
Then you would have to ride the actual road further south until you see the gravel trail on the west side. That trail eventually hooks up to the Illinois Prairie Path, at Smith Road.
Or you could take that Munger Road path from Bartlett Road to Stearns Road, then ride on Stearns’ shoulder to James “Pate” Philip State Park (we hope a path will replace that shoulder option someday). There a gravel trail exiting west near Stearns links to the Prairie Path.
No, regional connections still are not all easy.
Meanwhile, back in Streamwood
If you’re a more casual rider, the trails and even streets in the triangle west of Route 59 can offer several nice miles.
You’d take the bridge west over Route 59, follow the ramp’s curve south, and then the neighborhood trail comes up on the right amid the brush. (Hopefully the gravel will be replaced soon.)
You can make a loop around the creek and other ponds. The trails are thin, often bumpy and mostly paved; it’s gravel on the northwest end. The scenery isn’t bad at all.
The trail along the creek connects to one around Sunny Hill Park to the south. That can get you to the Irving Park Road path. Another link on the north will get you to the path along Schaumburg Road.
These paths along the busier roads are pretty in their own right, but in any direction, they simply end, nowhere left to go except in traffic.
If you want still more miles, the neighborhood streets are pretty, too, and you could make yourself a few loops.
Here’s a look at part of the trail through Columbia Park, then along Schaumburg Road.
So Streamwood has its bridge, something that doesn’t come easily. It’s one of a handful of major projects scheduled to improve connectivity in the suburbs and comes among several more smaller ones planned.
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Great article, as usual.