Book Road Will Become New DuPage River Trail Segment This Year

PLAINFIELD, IL — Book Road in Plainfield will be transformed into a new segment of the DuPage River Trail this year.

The Forest Preserve District of Will County took the first steps in the final week of January by closing the road between 127th and 119th streets.

The road will be converted into a trail, similar to Normantown Trail, as the first phase of a multi-year, $5.6 million effort to create an additional trail loop, parking access and habitat restoration on the roughly 300 acres of land owned by the Forest Preserve District along the west bank of the DuPage River, adjacent to Book Road.

The Forest Preserve District will start by removing the sides of Book Road to create a 10-foot-wide paved section, which should be open by the end of the year after vegetation is established along the sides of the path, spokesperson Cindy Cain told Patch.

The new one-mile stretch will connect with another DuPage River Trail section constructed by Pulte Home Co., which is building a subdivision north of 119th Street. That section will link to the segment at Riverview Farmstead in Naperville, Cain said.

The Book Road trail conversion is proceeding under an intergovernmental agreement approved between the Forest Preserve District, the Village of Plainfield and the Wheatland Township Road Commission. Regionally, the DuPage River Trail is a work in progress through a partnership between the Forest Preserve District and 12 other agencies.

Once fully completed, the trail will span 40 miles from Channahon north into DuPage County.