The village of Algonquin is one step closer to building a pedestrian bridge over Randall Road.
The Algonquin Committee of a Whole met Tuesday night and heard from Michael E. Kerr, of Christopher B. Burke Engineering out of Rosemont, who presented various design options for the bridge. The bridge will cross Randall near Huntington Drive/Bunker Hill Drive.
The majority of COW members agreed on a design with brick pillars that has a village of Algonquin emblem on it. Trustee Jim Siegert was the only trustee not to select the brick-pillar design, requesting the village move forward with two of the more artistic and less-traditional designs presented by Kerr.
COW members requested Kerr look at different color schemes for the design. In particular, they asked Kerr to change the color of a white arch that spans across the bridge.
The $4 million pedestrian bridge will be funded mostly by federal dollars with the remainder of the cost covered by county and village of Algonquin funds. Federal funds will pay for $3.16 million while the county and village of Algonquin will each fund $400,000 of the project.
The purpose of the pedestrian bridge is to improve safety for those crossing Randall Road, provide a link between the Woods Creek Bikeway and the Stonegate Bikeway and encourage non-motorized transportation to access Jacobs High School, Sherman Hospital and other commercial areas along Randall Road, Kerr said.
"There is really no safe place to cross Randall Road on your bike," Kerr said. "This design also accommodates the future widening of Randall Road."
Construction on the project is slated to start in 2014.
Route 62 going west across the Fox River is horrendous in rush hour traffic.
I live close to Randall Road/Bunker Hill Road and extremely rarely see any pedestrians trying to cross the highway. With traffic already prevalent on Randall Road, just think how fun it will be in 2014 when CONSTRUCTION starts in that location? How many more drivers/commuters would benefit from another road over the Fox River in Algonquin instead? (Much wiser use of our federal/local government funds for sure). Did we Algonquin citizens even get to VOTE on any of this?
Michael E. Kerr, of Christopher B. Burke Engineering out of Rosemont? Who are they and what are their connections to our town? Campaign contributors? It has a bad smell to it. The moniker should be a "bridge to no where". We need another east/west road to cross the Fox!
31 & 62 . We need a new bridge across the river.
Now we are going to drop 4 million on a pedestrian bridge? That nobody will use! Theres a few stores downtown and no parking? Downtown is what it is but its never going to be this premier high end shopping ground that Algonguin thinks its going to be! Somebody's lining their pockets on this deal. Waste Waste Waste!
For school, how about a crossing guard who works just those hours every day, to help keep the kids safe? I'm thinking that's a little cheaper and a whole lot less annoying. As far as another road over the river: YES! But, as I understand it, there was such an uproar when that was first proposed - what, thirty years ago now?! Citizens living in the proposed path were so vocal it was dropped. At least that's my vague recollection. When we moved into Algonquin, Randall road was farmland... I'd never have believed it would be like this 20 years later.
I don't even know what's going on with that monstrosity. Anyone else have any idea? The reasoning behind that whole deal is beyond me. Who'd like to live at that intersection?! Good luck getting in or out of the place and the serenade of traffic would soothe you to sleep every night...
My understanding is that this proposed walkway is largely to sooth concerns about Jacobs students, and maybe it's warranted (both because they're at higher risk when crossing and because they create higher risk when driving.) But I'd rather have a (much cheaper) way to cross 62 *at all*. I suppose I should write to the properly elected town officials if I really care--this is my first time posting to patch. But I had to get this off my chest somewhere!