Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Bloomingdale Trail?
The Bloomingdale Trail is the name given to the planned multi-use recreational trail to be built along the elevated rail line along Bloomingdale Avenue (approximately 1800 North) from Ashland (1600 West) to Ridgeway (3732 West).
How much will it cost?
It’s too soon to tell. Until a design concept is in place, it’s impossible to know what the project will
cost. When the City applied for design funding several years ago, the federal application listed an
estimated cost of about $41 million for complete buildout. Construction and labor costs have
changed since then, and it is not known how soon construction will begin, and if it will occur all at
once or in phases.
Didn’t Canadian Pacific recently offer the property to the city, and the city turned it down?
No.
The embankments and bridges are currently the property of the CP, much of which are located in
city street right-of-way. The City will take possession of the embankment when it completes the
necessary steps to be sure it can construct a safe, quality facility that complies with applicable laws
and standards to serve the adjacent communities and the general public.
The Canadian Pacific, asking the City to maintain a facility it and predecessor railroads used
commercially for decades, made a vague suggestion at a recent meeting that they would "throw a
strip of asphalt up there." It was not a formal offer and did not include any
necessary structural repairs, railings, ADA-compliant access ramps, bridge reconstruction, lighting,
protection for adjacent landowners, or environmental remediation.
Such a facility would be unsafe, fail the Park District’s land acquisition standards, and be
unsustainable as it would leave the City with immediate repairs and no resources to maintain 37
bridges and 37 embankment segments that are nearly a century old. Instead, the City is dedicated
to properly serving the public interest as it pursues this project with the goal of achieving the best
long-term results.
How long will it take?
Again, too soon to tell. The schedule is largely dependent on securing funding. The Phase I
design should begin in 2010. Design work should take about 18 months. Phase II
design will take about one year. The construction schedule depends on what is built, and if it is
build in phases.
Why does it take so long?
Any project of this magnitude takes years to go from concept to construction. A project of this
complexity has additional challenges. For example, there are 37 viaducts to be renewed or
replaced in this project. (There are only 52 bridges over the Chicago River.) At least seven sites
will be developed with access ramps that are sloped gently enough for wheelchair accessibility,
and most ramps will also need to integrate into city parks. And the location and magnitude of the
project call for a design that is both community-oriented and world-class.
Most of all, the project cost is likely to be in the tens of millions of dollars. Oftentimes, it takes
years to assemble the needed public funding—especially true in these times of dwindling funding
for infrastructure capital projects.
The High Line project in New York is already partially completed. Why is the Bloomingdale Trail still in the planning stages?
Though both are multiuse paths, each project has a unique history, challenges and opportunities:
• The Bloomingdale Trail first received public funding for design and planning in late 2007 --
after twice being rejected for funding. The High Line has received significant private
funding from celebrities and broke ground in 2006.
• The Bloomingdale Trail still carried occasional freight traffic as recently as earlier this
decade when service to remaining customers was rerouted through another railroad. The
last train on the High Line was in the 1980s.
• The Bloomingdale Trail will be 2.65 miles long while the High Line is only 1.45 miles long –
if the last segment is secured.
• The Bloomingdale Trail right-of-way is not in danger of imminent redevelopment for other
uses, as the High Line had been. That is because the Bloomingdale lies mostly over city
street rights-of-way, while much of the High Line is on easement over increasingly valuable
land held by private owners.
• The Bloomingdale Trail will be on a series of filled embankments and bridges which have
different environmental testing requirements than the High Line, which is on an elevated
structure (like a freight version of the Brown Line or Green Line El)
Who is handling the design?
CDOT recently selected ARUP North America as the project designer.
ARUP was one of 23 firms that responded to a request for proposals seeking qualified firms for the
work. Among its projects are engineering the “Water Cube” aquatics center for the 2008 Beijing
Olympics and the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, the world's largest highly
sustainable public space.
The ARUP team features nine sub-consultants, including:
• Chicago-based Ross Barney Architects, which has worked on several Chicago projects
including Wacker Drive and the Chicago Riverwalk
• Brooklyn-based Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, which worked on New York City’s
High Line, similar in concept to the Bloomingdale Trail
• Chicago-based Burns & McDonnell engineers, which has worked on many large Chicago
infrastructure projects.
• Chicago Public Art Group, which has brought Chicago neighborhoods and artists together
on a variety of projects
The City is currently working to finalize the contract with ARUP for the work, a process that
involves defining the specific scope of the work - including art and sustainability considerations -
and meeting all the requirements of the City contracting process.
Why is an embankment in City right-of-way?
On June 12, 1872, the Chicago and Pacific Railroad was granted an easement to install tracks on
“Bloomingdale Road.” For public safety, the Chicago City Council passed an ordinance on July 27,
1910 requiring the railroad (now the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railway) to elevate the
tracks by the end of 1913. (Similar ordinances occurred on other railroads.) As railroads changed
and merged over the years, this easement and embankment eventually became part of the
Canadian Pacific Railway.
What will the access points be?
Three Chicago Park District parks also border the embankment wall and are scheduled to become
access points: Walsh Park at 1722 N. Ashland, Churchill Field Park at 1825 N. Damen, Albany-
Whipple Park at 1803 N. Albany.
Albany-Whipple, which opened in 2008, is in some regards the first tangible step of trail
development, as it was acquired and improved (by the former Department of Planning and
Development in partnership with the Trust for Public Land) specifically to serve as a future trail
access site.
The City (in partnership with the Trust for Public Land) has acquired land at 1803 N. Milwaukee
and is working to acquire land at 1813 N. Kimball to be developed into future access parks, and the
Park District owns property to expand Walsh Park at 1830 N. Ashland – however these sites are
off-limits to the public until work is completed. We also anticipate that the western trail head will be
developed in cooperation with the adjacent McCormick-Tribune YMCA (3701 W. Cortland).
Additional access will be determined during design and engineering, including at least one location
between Humboldt Blvd. and Western Avenue, with the target of having all trail users within
approximately 1⁄4-mile from an exit point.
In addition to the access points, what other facilities are close to the trail?
Students at Stowe Elementary (3444 W. Wabansia), Yates Elementary (1839 N. Richmond) and
Moos Elementary (1711 N. California) can see the embankment from some classrooms or their
schoolyards. Drummond Elementary (1845 W. Cortland), two playlots, and St. Mary’s of the Angels
Church are within a block of the trail.
The route intersects the Damen Avenue bike lanes, Milwaukee Avenue marked shared lanes, and
signed routes on Humboldt Boulevard, Central Park Avenue and California Avenue, and provides
access to the Elston Avenue bike lanes from Caldwell Woods to downtown and the
Cortland/Armitage Avenue bike lanes to Lincoln Park Zoo and the Lakefront.
Within 1⁄4 mile or so of the trail are Humboldt Park, CTA Blue Line stations at Damen and Western,
the Clybourn Metra Station, two Chicago Public Library Branches, three small parks, four bike
shops, and a variety of shops and restaurants on Ashland, Damen, Milwaukee, Western,
California, Kimball, Armitage and North Avenues.