New pedestrian bridge planned for Maple Grove Forest Preserve near Downers Grove

A narrow bridge across St. Joseph Creek within the Maple Grove Forest Preserve has seen better days.

DuPage County Forest Preserve President Daniel Hebreard is well acquainted with the pedestrian bridge. Maple Grove is near downtown Downers Grove and is attached to ball fields in Memorial Park and Gilbert Park, where Hebreard played baseball growing up.

“As a park ranger, I was also in this creek fixing what is now a continued problem where we catch a lot of the debris coming down the stream,” Hebreard said in a video last year with U.S. Rep. Sean Casten, who secured federal funding for a new bridge.

Fast forward to this week, and the forest preserve board reviewed a contract with Christopher B. Burke Engineering to complete both Phase I and Phase II engineering design work for the replacement of the bridge and an associated sanitary sewer.

The bridge was originally built sometime in the early 1900s as a pipe bridge. The forest preserve district assumed ownership of the bridge in the 1960s.

Recent structural inspections have indicated it’s time to look at replacing the bridge, Brock Lovelace, the district’s engineering manager, said at a planning session.

The bridge also does not meet modern pedestrian standards, and it is disruptive to the hydrological function of St. Joseph Creek.

The total cost of the contract with Burke Engineering is valued at $279,480. Under a proposed intergovernmental agreement, the forest preserve district will cover 65% of design costs, and the Downers Grove Sanitary District will cover the remaining 35%. The sanitary district owns and operates the sanitary sewer encased within the same bridge.

“It’s a much-needed and overdue bridge project, which we know we have a few out there, so excited to get this one moving forward,” Hebreard said.

The forest preserve district has secured $750,000 in federal appropriations through the Community Project Funding program, also known as earmarks, for construction. As a result, engineering will have to comply with the Illinois Department of Transportation’s design standards.

“This would be a little bit longer process than we normally would like, but a couple weeks ago, we also submitted for additional state funding that would help close the gap in funding for construction,” Lovelace said. “If we get that state funding, then construction could be fully paid for.”

The district also is replacing another aging bridge over the West Branch of the DuPage River within the Blackwell Forest Preserve.

https://www.dailyherald.com/20250612/news/new-pedestrian-bridge-planned-for-maple-grove-forest-preserve/