A new section of the Lakefront Trail north of Fullerton has been open since November, but the second half of the path south of the street debuted last week. The path sits on 5.8 acres of brand-new parkland that was created via infill as part of the $31.5 million Chicago Department of Transportation and Chicago Park District project. The main goal of the project was to repair the area's crumbling seawall.
One benefit of the initiative is that it creates 600 feet soft-surface pedestrian path south of Fullerton, in addition to the paved multiuse path, which provides a bit of mode separation – something that many trail users have been asking for. The paved path is also moved further east from the off- and on-ramps for Lake Shore Drive at Fullerton, which helps make that location less chaotic.
Workers will continue to landscape the new land until next summer, so everything but the path is still fenced off. But you can already enjoy breathtaking new views of the skyline from the terra nova.
During construction, a temporary paved path detour existed south of Fullerton, on high ground close to the highway, but this has been ripped up and turned into the soft-surface trail. In the past, one of the big issues south of Fullerton is that the multiuse path sits very close to the lake and tends to get flooded and iced over during the cold months. It looks like the project hasn’t addressed that problem, but we’ll have to see what happens later this winter.
But that’s a relatively minor quibble. It’s great that we’ll have acres of new parkland to enjoy come summer. If you take a spin on the new trail, let us know what you think.
This post is made possible by a grant from the Illinois Bicycle Lawyers at Keating Law Offices, P.C., a Chicago, Illinois law firm committed to representing pedestrians and cyclists. The content is Streetsblog Chicago's own, and Keating Law Offices neither endorses the content nor exercises any editorial control.
