The Chainlink

Warning/question about the North Channel trail

We rode the NCT to Evanston yesterday and found it (though generally a great ride with very few people around) under construction along McCormick in a couple of places, and it was really poorly marked. Does anyone know where info on this work and its timeline can be found? 

I also laughed about the detour signage referring only to pedestrians - what up? Are cyclists - primary users of this route - chopped liver? Apparently so.

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Permalink Reply by Gerry G on July 10, 2012 at 7:50am


Canoe launch, Northwest corner of Lincoln Ave bridge and the canal.

James BlackHeron said:

It even seems that the path on the West bank was designed to meet up to the other side of the bridge here -and instead seems to just dead-end at the water after ramping down to it. 

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on July 10, 2012 at 8:00am

It is a canoe launch?  I remember a fairly sharp switchback corner getting down there but I guess it isn't that sharp.  And this would explain why it goes all the way down to water level which would be weird for the start of a bridge.

The next time I ride through this area I'll have to more closely check out the area south of the Lincoln bridge to see how a bridge would fit into this area.  I don't remember a good spot to cross under Lincoln on the West bank, and any such path would then come into conflict with said canoe launch just north of the bridge.  Or perhaps they plan on crossing Lincoln at street level with a crosswalk on the West side of the channel. 

Permalink Reply by Richard on July 10, 2012 at 9:20am

I got this from Chicago CDOT:

The Lincolnwood project is to be done 8/1 - includes amphitheater, disk golf, stage & fishing platform, water access.

source: https://twitter.com/ChicagoDOT/status/218078264789450752

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on July 10, 2012 at 10:02am

So the proposed bridge was, in fact, located just North of Lincoln and would run roughly parallel with the Lincoln bridge.  This seems like it would shoot just over the top of the "canoe launch" and perhaps would require the closing of that while it was being built.   Maybe the path down to the launch would also be re-worked to integrate into the bridge landing on the Northwest side of the channel.  

This all does explain the funky routing of the path on the East bank and the strange U-turn onto Kedzie to retrograde back South to cross at Lincoln.  Perhaps when they set that up it was only supposed to be short-term solution and the bridge would be forthcoming in the near future.  Thanks to a jerk alderman (is that redundant?) it became more of a permanent fixture.  

With regards to the folks who said that some of the other crossings off of Kedzie north of this proposed bridge, they do suck but not really any more so than the crappy crossing at Lincoln.   I'm not sure what the orignal intent was with the Lincoln route as the curb cuts don't really make it possible to stay on the roadway and the "sidewalk" area is very narrow with a huge drop-off to the curb if one were to fall off of it back onto the road.    Usually there are peds here and it is best to just walk the bike across the bridge.    I find Devon, Touhy or Howard to be all better IMHO than attempting Lincoln in the road.

In John's article it mentions that the money slated to go towards the bridge project was spent elsewhere.  I can only hope that somehow more money can be found to build it.   The lack of a bridge here is a HUGE wart on an otherwise wonderful piece of 8-80 bicycling and pedestrian infrastructure.

The only other issue I have with the trail is that the locations of the "push to walk" buttons are sometimes difficult to get to while on a bike -especially if one is using clipless pedals and would like to keep one foot clipped in.   Many other trail users (usually peds) often don't use the buttons and prefer to make a dash for it sometimes but will still stand in front of the button they won't push making it even harder to access them on a bike with zombies blocking the way.   Having some sort of automatic sensor at the crossings would be great but that is wishful thinking.   The bridge is definitely the first order of business in my opinion behind getting the current construction finished.

Hopefully they will get a path through the construction site finished before the final end date of the project. Perhaps that is why they did such a pitiful job of creating a detour, thinking it would only be a few weeks to get the pathway back up and running and a better detour around the last of the construction that doesn't involve leaving the park.   

Permalink Reply by Richard on July 10, 2012 at 10:06am

It's sound like we need to remind our elected officials that this trail is important to us. I use it to commute between Lincoln Square (Lawrence) to Noyes St in Evanston.

I've been trying to catalogue the route and keep detours etc up to date. I'd be much appreciative if anyone else would like to join in...

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=21624426858002572662...

Permalink Reply by Sarah D. on July 10, 2012 at 11:04am

Thank you Richard! I was hoping someone had been tracking this trail. It's such a great route to E-town. I will be checking it!

Plus, THIS JUST IN! I have been delighted to hear back -twice - from the village of Lincolnwood Parks Superintendent, Andy Thurman. Here's his last email:

__

Hi Sarah,

Since the hot weather we have had over the last week it was hard to for the construction crew to be out on site and pouring the new path. The entire project should be completed by September, but the path should be done in the next couple weeks.

 

We do not have a hotline, but that is an excellent idea. I can look into this suggestion more. I apologize for the inconvenience with the path. I can promise you it will be much better once the project is finished. The detour signs should be directing pedestrians across McCormick Blvd and onto the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street. I will talk with the engineer today and update you on the timeline for the path construction. Thank you for your inquiry.

 

Andy Thurman, CPRP

Superintendent of Parks and Facilities

Village of Lincolnwood

___

Permalink Reply by Richard on July 10, 2012 at 11:36am

Sarah: You're most welcome. Looking after the entirety of this path is going to take a bit of ground-swell. It passes through various municipalities (though all under Cook Co I believe). The route users should (politely) advocate for this wonderful, mostly safe bike/ped path. I use this route daily from Lawrence to Noyes.

 

Permalink Reply by Richard on July 30, 2012 at 9:37am

Does anyone have updated news on the re-opening of this path?

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on July 30, 2012 at 9:45am

I was thinking of heading up that way today or tomorrow and was thinking the same thing.  It migh be open again by now -not done, but open again past the construction sites which will probably not be finished until much later this fall.

Taking Kedzie as a detour isn't that big of a deal IMHO.  It's pretty fast and smooth. The only issue is easily crossing back over the river via the various E/W roads & bridges to get back on the path. 

Richard said:

Does anyone have updated news on the re-opening of this path?

Permalink Reply by Richard on July 30, 2012 at 10:13am

As of this morning, it's still closed. North-bound, I take McCormmick at the light and join the path just north of Touhy. In the early 7 o'clock hour, I've found most motorist to be respectful.

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on September 7, 2012 at 5:17pm

I've not been riding the trail much these past few weeks but today I took it and the trail is now open to progress through without detouring  -although  there are spurs that are not yet open.  There is at least one way through the ongoing construction now. 

I was really disappointed at the design of the new path.   In addition to the stupid and dangerous frolf course they have built further south, they have built up high berms just south of Touhey that the trails snake through.  Unfortunately these berms are quite high and interfere with sightlines to the crossing/meanderig paths.  This makes for some blind intersections where you can NOT see the other path until you turn a corner and then you are RIGHT on it.  It will be hard to see the cross-traffic until it is too late.     I see a potential for some really bad high-speed T-bone collisions between bicyclist and bicyclists and pedestrians/pets (both leashed and unleashed)   at these meandering path crossings.   They were already bad enough at other spots when people WOULDN'T look ahead -now they CAN'T look ahead -so much "better" -NOT!

This is some really stupid planning.  IMHO the new section of the Channel Trail is unsuitable for riding on now as it is too dangerous what with the frolf danger and high-speed collisions being nearly nevitable if you ride this section long enough.  Not only that, but with the lack of a bridge at Lincoln the permanent retrograde detour on Kedzie & Lincoln is also dangerous and just a PITA so one should cross over to Kedzie @ Devon anyhow.   It makes more sense than crossing at lincoln.  Might as well just pull off at Touhy and be done with it.

I think I'll continue to turn off at Touhy and keep skipping this dangerous/stupid new section.  Kedzie is faster and safer than the trail with a bike lane and sharrows the whole way.

Too bad -it could have been a nice trail.   I'm not even hoping for a bike bridge at Lincoln any more.  Why bother at this point :(

Permalink Reply by NYC (7.0 mi) on September 7, 2012 at 5:42pm

Thanks for the bump on this!  My wife and I were cruising up the channel trail for the first time a couple of weeks back.  She is pretty new to cycling and was like "Let's just go back to Lincoln Square and get lunch."  I couldn't disagree with her as I didn't know the area, and it looked pretty shitty from that spot.

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