Forest Preserve District schedules Veterans Memorial Trail ribbon cutting
The Forest Preserve District of Will County will host a public ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday, Oct. 28, for a new 3.5-mile section of Veterans Memorial Trail in Homer Township.
The ceremony will take place at 10 a.m. at the new 167th Street pedestrian tunnel in Lockport. Attendees should park at the Spring Creek Toll Plaza located off Prime Boulevard. Once on Prime, turn west at the toll plaza entrance road just north of Bo Jackson’s Elite Sports. A shuttle will transport guests to the ribbon cutting.
After the ribbon cutting, the trail will be officially open for public use. The new paved Veterans Memorial Trail section travels north from the Spring Creek Greenway Trail in Hadley Valley preserve to a 7-mile state-owned trail along 159th Street that links to Orland Park’s Centennial Park.
The new trail section, which includes a second pedestrian tunnel under Bruce Road, grew out of plans for construction of the Veterans Memorial Tollway (Interstate 355), which provides a 15- to 20-foot-wide corridor for portions of the path. Eventually, the new section of Veterans Memorial Trail will be extended north from 159th Street to an existing section of Veterans Memorial Trail in DuPage Township and south to Route 6 in New Lenox.
Work on the new segment of Veterans Memorial Trail was paid for, in part, with a $5.3 million federally-funded Transportation Alternatives Program grant. Engineering for the project was funded by $815,000 from the federal Transportation, Community, and Systems Preservation program. The City of Lockport contributed $575,000 for trail construction.
For more information on the Forest Preserve District of Will County, visit ReconnectWithNature.org.
