PEORIA, Ill. — Utility vehicles are damaging the Rock Island Greenway bike trial by driving on the pavement to get to work zones.
The Peoria Park District is looking into fixing the damages and preventing more from happening.
Mike Friberg, with the Peoria Park District, presented a first reading Wednesday night to the Park District Board that would modify the policy regarding access to the bike trail.
“Ever since the Greenway was built, we’ve had a lot of neighbors and utility contractors want to use the bike trail pavement to access their work sites,” Friberg said. “The problem being that the bike trail was not really built for that.”
Currently, four wheel vehicles that weigh less than a ton can use the trail if needed. However, heavier vehicles are going onto the path.
“We attempt to enforce a low limit of no motor vehicles whatsoever, but obviously with people wanting to get on it, we’ve got to find a happy medium to allow them to do their necessary work, and to make sure at the same time that our public investment is protected,” Friberg said.
Last March, Friberg said a work truck weighing over 40 tons went onto the trail to access a work site.
“The results are still out there. It pretty much wrecked it in places,” he said.
The Peoria Park District has received messages from the public about the damages that have been done to the trail.
“I think everyone in the community knows how long we spent trying to build that trail,” Friberg said. “So, it’s kind of disheartening. I know personally it was disheartening after spending all of that time on it to see it in [a] cracked condition.”
Friberg proposed to the Peoria Park District Board that if utility vehicles want to use the bike trail for access to a work zone, there will be a formal permit process.
“The process would designate that any contractor that wants to drive on the trail, on the pavement, needs to submit a bond or cash up front before they access the pavement. And, that’s going to be based on what we know the costs are to rebuild the trail and for the distance they want to use the trail,” Friberg said.
The money given up front would then be held onto by the Park District, and if there are any damages to the trail, the money will be used to repair the trail. If there are no damages, the money is returned to the contractor. An agreement to fix the current damages is in the works.
During Friberg’s first reading presentation to the board, he showed pictures of the cracked conditions on the trail. Board President, Robert Johnson, was taken back by what he saw.
“I remember when we put that together, there was a lot of work that went into getting that trail done. A lot of citizen’s input, a lot of people, and then tax payers money is going to make sure it’s kept up nice and neat,” Johnson said. “I was a little taken back to see it damaged.”
Johnson agrees that a happy medium needs to be found if there are damages.
“I’m hopeful that we can work out some type of agreement to get it fixed and repaired, and brought back to its natural beauty again,” Johnson said.
