Lockport, Will County take first steps on new trail by I&M canal

Lockport — The city of Lockport and the Forest Preserve District of Will County officially entered into an intergovernmental agreement Sept. 20, approving a feasibility study for 3 miles of new walking and biking trails along the canal.

The idea for the proposed “Lockport Loop” trail system first was introduced in September 2008 by Openlands and would create a trail going north from Division Street along the shipping canal within the forest preserve’s Lockport Loop Trail Preserve to the northern limits of the 181-acre former Chevron property. The city acquired that property in 2018.

The trail then would loop south and east through the Chevron property and connect with the Illinois & Michigan Canal Trail.

“The city acquiring the Chevron property opened a lot of opportunities,” said Colleen Novander, forest preserve director of planning and land preservation. “The forest preserve district always enjoys partnering with local governments to make trail connections. One of our main goals is to bring people into nature and make connections in the county.”

The agreement establishes a 50/50 cost-sharing agreement between the forest preserve and the city to hire V3 Companies to conduct the feasibility study for the project. Each entity will pay $76,500 for the study, which Lockport City Administrator Ben Benson said will take about six months to complete.

“The feasibility study is really the first step in the process,” Benson said. “We need to put together estimates and figure out who the stakeholders and property owners are that we’d need to work with.”

Some of the stakeholders who likely will need to reach agreements with the city to move forward include the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

If the results of the feasibility study are positive, then the city and forest preserve likely would move forward with Phase I development, which could take an additional 18 months.

“Actual construction probably wouldn’t start until 2026, or maybe late 2025 at the earliest,” Benson said. “This is a long-term goal for the city to increase connectivity and find new ways to increase tourism opportunities and get people over more by the river, which is really beautiful.”

If completed, the trail would be co-managed by the city and the forest preserve district based on whose land different portions of it reside on.

The Lockport Loop is one of several bike and walking path projects in development in Lockport. The city is in phase one of development with the Illinois Department of Transportation for a new bike path over the Route 7 bridge to connect the I&M Canal Path to Lewis University and the village of Romeoville.

The village also is working with the city to connect the Centennial Trail and the I&M Canal at 135th Street.

There also are plans to extend the Veterans Memorial Tollway path to both the east and west and connect it to the I&M Path, although this project has not yet begun development.