Overpass to connect Champaign County Greenways and Trails Path

When the Lake of the Woods Road overpass is completed, it will include a bike path which will connect the existing infrastructure of the Champaign County Greenways and Trails Path.

The Village of Mahomet partnered with the Champaign County Forest Preserve (CCFPD) on the Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program grant, which funded 80 percent of the project.  The CCFPD and the Village split the other 20 percent.

The total project cost $1.2 million.

Mahomet Parks and Recreation Department (MPRD) director Dan Waldinger said that if the path wasn’t there when IDOT started construction at the end of 2013, then they wouldn’t include a bike path in their plans.

“That would have been a catastrophe,” he said. “That bridge won’t get built again for a long time.”

The current structure was built in 1967.

IDOT will begin to accept bids to replace the overpass, which is estimated at $4.4 million, in June.  Mahomet Public Works director Gary LaForge said construction may begin as early as November, and take six to nine months to complete.

The overpass has been limited to one lane since 2011.  IDOT, which inspects the structure weekly,  determined that the bridge deck on the lower side was starting to fail. The overpass will be closed during construction.

An extension of the current path, which runs along Route 150 to the library, included a turn-around under the Route 150 bridge and a path along Lake of the Woods Road south of the overpass.  It also included a path along the east side of Lake of the Woods Forest Preserve that ends just north of Uncle Buck’s Sport Bar.

The Illinois Department of Transportation will extend the overpass construction to meet up with the path that comes out of the forest preserve.

“This multi-purpose path gives the community safe access across 150, and opens up that whole side of town,” Waldinger said.

When the project is completed, the contractor will come back and reseed and regrade around the paths.

Included in the ITEP grant, the Village was able to extend the path with a turnaround along Route 150 underneath the Sangamon River Bridge.

Waldinger said that the path was not undermined in flood waters last month.  When the waters receded, the MPRD attached a brush to their mower and cleaned the dirt off the path.

The Village is currently in the process of applying for a grant with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to extend that path to the parking lot located at Barber Park, turning it into a trailhead.  If the Village wins this grant, they will pay 100 percent of the costs up front, then will receive 50 percent back when the project is completed.

The estimated cost of this project is $100,000.

“I’m excited that we’ll have a path for grandparents or wheelchairs to get close to (soccer) fields one, two and five,” he said. “We can also use it as a service path when it gets muddy, for trash pick-up, and for mowers.  Or people will be able to use it to take kayaks down to the river.”

Waldinger said that the projected goals is to connect Lake of the Woods to the River Bend Forest Preserve, which will connect the entire Mahomet community.  The Champaign County Greenways and Trails was established by the county with the intention of connecting towns throughout Champaign County via a multi-purpose path.

“Mahomet is very fortunate to be where we are right now.  If you talk to St. Joe, they don’t have anything,” he said.

Waldinger said without the forward thinking of past village leaders who kept infrastructures, such as old bridges, in place, Mahomet would not have the accessibility to connect the community through the paths.