As work begins on a new $3 million, mile-long bike and walking path in Skokie, cyclist Jeff Miller has some advice for the village.

“A mile’s a good place to start,” said Miller, who is a member of the Evanston Bike Club. “They build a lot of these trails piecemeal, and they end up making connections when they have the funds to make another segment, so it’s always good to see the beginning of a trail.”

The Skokie Village Board recently signed off on paying A Lamp Concrete Contractors, of Schaumberg, more than $769,000 to start construction on the trail. It’ll run along the abandoned Union Pacific railway line, between Oakton and Dempster streets.

During a recent village board meeting, Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen said that U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky was instrumental in securing a $200,000 federal grant to help pay for the project.

“She really did a great job on helping with this,” he said.

The scenic and landscaped path will be built in two phases, starting with land grading, followed by the construction of the path. Then come prairie plantings, upgrading of lawn areas, signage, and the building of bioswales and rain gardens that will catch and store rain water, officials said. The village said all the plants lining the path will be native to Illinois, will have a “prairie look” and be self-sustaining.

“I think in general it will be more for commuters because it’s only a mile long,” Miller said. “If it ends linking up to something else, then I could see more recreational bikers using it.”

Village staff hope to soon extend the Skokie path south to Lincolnwood, into Chicago and north to Northbrook as part of the North West Municipal Conference regional plan.

“Open spaces are disappearing so fast, that when you can get something like this and develop it, it’s a good thing,” said Village Trustee Don Perille. “It will be a way for people to get from the new CTA station, north. There’s a lot of good reasons for it.”

http://triblocal.com/skokie/2011/10/07/work-begins-on-3-million-sko...