Lake County Forest Preserves

Bike Path Underpasses

Engineering Underpasses

Civiltech has provided the design and construction engineering of underpasses throughout the Lake County Forest Preserve District. The primary need for a bike path underpass is to provide a safe and legal crossing of a road that is traveled with high speeds and high ADT.

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Gilmer Road Underpass

Civiltech provided Phase I, II, and III services for the construction of an underpass under Gilmer Road, a two-lane, two way north-south minor arterial under the jurisdiction of the Lake County Division of Transportation. The Gilmer Road Bike Path Underpass is a reinforced concrete tunnel that will allow trail users to safely pass under Gilmer Road. The tunnel is 18 feet wide and 11 feet in height and has concrete wing walls with a simulated stone finish. The surrounding slopes were planted with native trees and grasses. Provisions were instituted to allow Gilmer Road to remain open during construction and the structure is long enough to accommodate a future five lane cross-section on Gilmer Road with either shoulders or curb and gutter with sidewalk at the back of curb.

The underpass will expand the length of directly linked trails to over 90 miles. It will also link the future Fort Hill Trail system to thousands of acres of preserve lands at Countryside, Lakewood, Singing Hills, Marl Flat, Rollins Savanna, Fourth Lake Fen, Bonner Farm and McDonald Woods Forest Preserve. The Gilmer Road Bike Path Underpass/Fort Hill Trail will provide a link from the Millennium Trail (LCFPD) to the Prairie Crossing Trail as part of the Lake County trail system. This trail also links two different Metra train stations, the Mundelein-North-Central Line and the Libertyville-Milwaukee District North Line, using the Prairie Crossing Trail. The trail will provide links to Fremont Elementary School and various nature and recreation programs and improve access to the 1,500 acre Fairfield Road Wetland Complex, one of the most important restoration efforts in the area.

Millennium Trail Underpass – Grand Avenue, Illinois Route 132

Civiltech provided Phase I, II and III services for the construction of an underpass under Grand Avenue, a four-lane, arterial under the jurisdiction of the Illinois Department of Transportation. The improvements were part of the Lake County Forest Preserve District’s Master Plan and the proposed Grand Illinois Trail which one day will link multiple trails between Chicago and Galena. Together with the Des Plaines River and Fort Hill trails, this system includes over 90 miles of multi-use trails which will provide access to a large portion of the 28,000-acre Lake County Forest Preserves system.

The Millennium Trail Underpass is a reinforced concrete tunnel that will allow trail users to safely pass under Grand Avenue from its current terminus near Rollins Road to connect to an existing LCFPD trail north of the their Operations and Public Safety Facility. The tunnel is 18 feet wide and 11 feet in height and has concrete wing walls with a simulated stone finish. The surrounding slopes were planted with native trees and grasses. The structure is long enough to accommodate a future five lane cross-section with curb and gutter and a bikeway/pedestrian facilities behind the back of curb. Due to a constrained right-of-way near an adjacent utility tower along the southern approach, the underpass incorporates a soldier pile wall design on either side of the trail. This design necessitated close coordination with the local agency staff and the Forest Preserve to ensure the aesthetic treatment for the wall surfaces and curved alignment blends into the surroundings without an enclosed or narrowing corridor effect for the users.