Riverside Village Manager Jessica Frances said the Cook County Department of Transportation and Highways offered to cover up to half of the village’s cost for engineering and construction work to extend the Des Plaines River Trail’s southern portion.
Frances on Oct. 16 told village trustees that representatives from the department had said the county can use funds collected from the motor fuel tax to assist Riverside in paying its 20% share of project costs by covering up to half of that amount. This leaves the village with just 10% of the overall cost. The remaining 80% is expected to be covered by grant funding Riverside is not responsible for securing.
The most recent estimates, which were also shared at the village board’s Oct. 2 meeting, show the local share for work along 31st Street would cost $152,600 and work along First Avenue would cost about $365,000, for a total price tag of $517,600, Frances said. The additional county funding would cover up to half of that amount, leaving Riverside on the hook for $258,800 in total.
Frances said the completion by next year of phase one engineering by Ciorba Group, the contracted firm for the project, is paramount to displaying project readiness, which will help with securing grant funding through programs like the Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program in 2026 and the Invest in Cook program in 2027 to cover Riverside’s remaining portion of the cost.
Once engineering is completed, Riverside would still be able to pull out of the project if it cannot afford its slice of the pie, she said.
Frances said she has stayed in contact with Brookfield Village Manager Tim Wiberg, as Brookfield is the lead agency for the project, which seeks to fill gaps in the 55-mile Des Plaines River Trail. She said Brookfield staff also have been in contact with staff from Lyons, who may be open to pushing the project forward despite lower commitment.
“Lyons is the one that, to my understanding, is a little bit less engaged than Brookfield and Riverside, and that’s a small piece of that connector. I think, really, the linchpin is Riverside and Brookfield. If either one of us are saying, financially, we can’t do this, then that pauses the project,” she said.
The path along Waubansee Road
Frances and Anne Cyran, Riverside’s community development director, asked trustees to choose one of four options to replace the existing five-foot-wide exposed aggregate concrete sidewalk along Waubansee Road, which is included in the proposed plan from Ciorba.
Cyran said the village could recommend one of the following:
- Replacing the path with a 10-foot concrete path,
- Replacing it with a 10-foot asphalt path,
- Moving it into the street with pavement markers and replacing street-parking options, or
- Placing it on the nearby property of the Cook County Forest Preserves.
She said the 10-foot-wide asphalt path was already included in construction cost estimates, though it would go against Riverside’s policy of exclusively using concrete for sidewalks. The 10-foot-wide concrete path would match other pathways in town but had not been factored into estimates and could cost twice or thrice as much, she said. Either option would require Riverside to create a maintenance agreement with the county due to a water main running beneath the existing path.
While trustees seemed to lean toward the fourth option, Frances said county representatives had heavily suggested it would not be feasible due to active restoration work being completed in that stretch of the Forest Preserves.
“It doesn’t appear as though there would be the appetite to allow for the path to run through that green space,” she said.
She asked trustees to reach consensus on an alternate choice so there would be a way forward if she were to go to the county and be shot down on the fourth option.
The board seemed split, with trustees Joseph Fitzgerald, Elizabeth Kos and Alex Gallegos saying they would prefer asphalt, though Kos said she would also support moving the path into the street.
Trustee Cristin Evans said she preferred the concrete path.
Trustee Aberdeen Marsh-Ozga said she would like to see the path moved into the street.
Trustee Jill Mateo said she still preferred having the path cut through Forest Preserve property, though she said the asphalt or on-street path would be acceptable if the county would not budge.
Village President Doug Pollock called the board’s consensus for the asphalt path.
“Manager Frances could remember this from 10 years ago: I was as big a proponent of the exposed aggregate as anybody, and I haven’t changed that perspective one iota. I still believe every sidewalk we put in should be exposed aggregate,” he said. “I don’t think of this as a sidewalk, though. It’s a pathway, and there’s a difference.”
