Green Bay Road Pedestrian Bridge To Connect Lake Bluff, North Chicago

LAKE BLUFF, IL — Safety concerns from area residents have been answered with plans for a new pedestrian bridge on Green Bay Road between Lake Bluff and North Chicago, local officials announced last week.

Students walking to and from Lake Bluff Elementary School will no longer have to walk alongside highway-speed traffic on a bridge with no sidewalk, thanks to $1.25 million in funding earmarked for a new pedestrian bridge in the state's budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

The bridge separates about 50 houses within Lake Bluff School District 65 from their school, serves as a barrier for the residents of about 200 apartments and civilian and military housing for Naval Station Great Lakes at Forrestal Village, and limits pedestrian access from nearby Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, according to village staff.

“I was one of the people at Rosalind Franklin University many years ago,” Village President Regis Charlot said in a statement.

“The thought of walking from the University to downtown Lake Bluff was daunting, if not life-threatening," he said. "Investments like these from Springfield bring diverse partners together and make opportunities for our communities.”

Village staff said there is a concept study underway for the new bridge that is expected to be completed in July, with the $1.25 million figure based on a general estimate of similar projects. Construction is expected to begin no earlier than summer 2024.

---

State Sen. Julie Morrison (D-Lake Forest) led the effort to include money for the project in the state budget for the fiscal year starting in July.

“Safety of the community is — and always has been — my top priority,” Morrison said. “We must do all we can to make Lake Bluff safer, and that starts with ensuring people can travel safely through the area.”

The area was still largely undeveloped when the 68-year-old bridge was first built. It is now used by about 9,500 cars every day, according to village staff.

---

“The pedestrian bridge will solve very real safety issues not only for students going back and forth to school but also for walkers and bicyclists," Lake County Board Chair Sandy Hart (D-Lake Bluff) said in a statement. "It will also increase safe access for residents and visitors to the community to enjoy nature and partake in living a healthier lifestyle.”

The planned bridge will allow hundreds of residents better access to downtown Lake Bluff and the village's Metra station, building on a network of trails as part of larger regional connectivity plans among north suburban communities.

According to the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning's 2020 Northern Lakeshore Trail Connectivity Plan, which aims to improve pedestrian and cycling connections among the lakeshore communities of Beach Park, Zion, Winthrop Harbor, Waukegan and North Chicago, there are 88 miles of sidewalk gaps within a quarter-mile of a school or park in the area. Federal highway safety officials have concluded that the addition of sidewalks along roads can reduce crashes up to 88 percent.

While only 0.3 percent of fatal crashes involving drivers and passengers are fatal, 4.6 percent of bicycle and pedestrian crashes involve a fatality, according to the plan's existing condition report. While during the five-year period ending in 2017, crashes involving cyclists and pedestrians made up only 2.7 percent of the approximately 14,500 crashes in the five-town study area, they represented 36 percent of all injuries and 6.7 percent of all fatalities — a fatality rate 15 times higher than crashes involving passengers in cars.