Miles of improvements await Kane County bicyclists this spring

Bicycle enthusiasts can look forward to miles of improvements along Kane County’s regional trails and city streets this spring, according to a news release from Kane County.

“In the past few years, Kane County, Kendall County and partnering municipalities have been hard at work to advance stalled bicycle and pedestrian projects, create new bicycle and pedestrian connections, and have put a priority on those connections in future programs,” said Troy Simpson, Kane County Bicycle and Pedestrian coordinator and regional planning liaison for the Kane Kendall Council of Mayors.

Simpson said in 2021, six miles of new bicycle improvements were completed in Kane and Kendall counties, with another 27 miles currently in the engineering phase or under construction. He credits the Kane County Department of Transportation for its foresight to take a leadership role in the regional coordination of bicycle and pedestrian projects, the release stated.

“The exceptional regional coordination of this work has been made possible because of the commitment of KDOT to staff a planner for KKCOM who is dedicated to bicycle and pedestrian issues,” Simpson said. “KKCOM works with Kane and Kendall County municipalities along with the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning to secure and allocate federal funding for much of the bikeways that our residents benefit from every day.”

Visit this site to find the latest downloadable bike maps for Kane County and northern Kendall County as well as the Kane Kendall Bicycle and Pedestrian app, which provides information on trails, bikeway type, surface type and traffic stress on major roads.

The app also provides information on bike shops, forest preserves and local parks. An update to the downloadable map is coming in the Spring for the 2022 riding season and will be available on the KDOT bicycle and pedestrian resources webpage.

Examples of some of the recent updates that riders will notice if they are out on the trails this year include the following:

• New bike lanes in Batavia on Prairie Street from Wilson Street to Pine Street.
• New tunnel in Elgin/South Elgin on the Fox River Trail at Illinois Prairie Path and Raymond Street under the Union Pacific railroad tracks.
• New bike lanes in Aurora from Garfield Avenue to Prairie Street and Prairie Street from Edgelawn Drive to LeGrande Avenue.
• New bridge over the Fox River at the Aurora Transportation Center.
• New bike path parallel and adjacent to Fabyan Parkway in Batavia/Geneva from Route 25 to Kirk Road. The new bike path extends North along Kirk Road to the Fox Valley Ice Arena and South to connect to the existing Kirk Road trail.

Examples of some of the plans for 2022 include:

• Extensive resurfacing along the Fox River Trail north and south of downtown Elgin this summer.
• Extensive bike lane construction in Algonquin along Harrison Street and Main Street, which will be a part of a corridor stretching from Route 31 at the northern part of the County to Route 62 at the southern part.
• Repair work on bike path parallel and adjacent to Orchard Road in Aurora.
• Resurfacing in Geneva on Keslinger Road east of Peck Road.