Montgomery officials seeking $3M grant for pedestrian bridge over Route 30

The village of Montgomery is seeking a grant through the Illinois Department of Transportation that would pay for a significant portion of the cost for a proposed pedestrian bridge that would span Route 30 on the village’s far west side.

In a unanimous vote Sept. 26, the Village Board adopted a resolution authorizing the grant application to IDOT’s Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program.

Before the board’s vote, Peter Wallers, CEO and president of Engineering Enterprises Inc., the village’s engineering consultants, told the board that applying for the ITEP grant probably is the village’s best opportunity to secure funding for the bridge that would provide pedestrians and cyclists with a safe passageway over the busy highway.

Under the ITEP program guidelines, the grant, if approved, would provide an 80/20 split for the project cost between IDOT and the village up to $3 million.

Wallers told board members the bridge project has a current estimated price tag of just more than $3.4 million.

Board members approved the resolution without comment.

Wallers told the board his firm had prepared an ITEP grant application prior to the Sept. 26 meeting and would submit it in time for IDOT’s Sept. 30 grant application deadline.

Village officials seek to have the bridge installed over Route 30 in an area just west of Rebecca Circle on the highway’s south side and the Fox Valley Park District’s Stuart Sports Complex along the north side of the highway.

At an earlier Village Board meeting, Wallers said the bridge would be similar to a pedestrian bridge installed in 2011 on the Virgil L. Gilman Trail that spans Galena Boulevard on Aurora’s far west side.

According to the village’s resolution, the proposed pedestrian bridge would provide a “direct connection for residents to the Stuart Sports Complex, Orchard Road retail area, Orchard Road Regional bike, Virgil Trail Gilman Regional Bike Trail, Village of Montgomery Police Department, McDole Elementary School, Lakewood Creek Elementary School, eight residential subdivisions and several public parks and forest preserve areas.

The resolution states that it commits the village to cover its share of preliminary engineering, design engineering, construction engineering and construction related expenses for the project.