An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, which is why Ride Illinois keeps close tabs on upcoming road projects. It’s much more cost and time efficient to design well from the beginning than to retrofit an improvement. We are always listening at the state, county, and local levels to look for opportunities to influence design. It is one of the “back door” ways Ride Illinois works to make biking better in Illinois.

We recently reviewed upcoming DuPage County DOT road projects for their potential impacts on bicyclists and pedestrians. We are happy to see important projects moving forward such as:

• Extending the Great Western Trail west to Sassafras Drive in West Chicago.
• Constructing segments 13 and 14A of the East Branch DuPage River Trail.
• Realigning a section of the Illinois Prairie Path to avoid the EJ&E/CN railroad crossing.
• Adding a sidewalk on 63rd Street from Woodridge Drive to Janes Avenue.

We also identified opportunities to improve conditions along and across key routes.  Our full list of DuPage recommendations can be found here.

Diehl at Naperville Road (part of the Diehl-Ogden project)

We recommend adding a crosswalk to the north side of the intersection because it is unrealistic to expect someone to spend several minutes detouring around the intersection. Also, if westbound Diehl at Naperville has a demand-actuated stoplight, we request on-road bicycle detection and navigational signage, similar to the treatment we successfully advocated for in Warrenville.

Warrenville Road Bridge Replacement over the East Branch DuPage River

Accommodating walking and cycling in bridge projects is critical because they often provide the only way to cross barriers, such as rivers and highways. Bridges are built to last decades, so opportunities to improve conditions are rare. Retrofitting is costly and complicated.

In our correspondence with the DuPage County DOT, we noted that Warrenville Road is a popular bike route, especially with regular commuters and club-level cyclists. For this bridge project and any further work on Warrenville Road, we asked that paved shoulders or bike lanes be maintained and/or added, along with an off-road accommodation on at least one side. Although this particular project is limited to the bridge, we think it is important to discuss the larger context. The removal of shoulders in the past two decades (by Mill/Ferry, also near Freedom Dr .and Naperville Rd.) has been a point of frustration for many cyclists.

Doing work related to the river bank also presents a big opportunity to advance the East Branch DuPage River Greenway Trail and a trail connection between Lisle and the Arboretum.  We propose a trail underpass of Warrenville Road on the west bank of the river, along with a connection to Arboretum Woods Park and a loop up to the road for a 2-way trail crossing using the new bridge (a la Ferry Road over the West Branch). Such an underpass would remove the greatest barrier on a proposed trail north from Lisle, and be a much better and safer option than a trail along IL53 and its complicated intersections at Warrenville Rd and I-88.

If fiscal and engineering constraints preclude an underpass, a considerably lesser option—but still a plus—would be an at-grade crossing immediately west of the river, requiring a wider bridge with a median refuge island and (preferably) demand-actuated Rapid Rectangular Flashing Beacons for the crossing. Such an island now exists right by Warrenville Road’s I-88 underpass, but sightlines are too poor.