Bridge Replacement Closes Lake Bluff Bike Path Through Mid-July

LAKE BLUFF, IL — A bridge replacement project beginning this month in Lake Bluff stands to benefit bicyclist this summer. Starting Monday, the Robert McClory Bike Path bridge over Route 176, just south of the train station, will close to riders, village officials announced.

Starting the following week, traffic below the bridge on Route 176 will be intermittently reduced to a single lane of traffic between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m.

The viaduct will also need to be closed completely during overnight hours on two separate instances — one to remove the old bridge and another to install the new one.

Those dates have yet to be scheduled, according to a village officials, who said updates about the product will be posted online.

The path runs for 25 miles through Lake County from the Cook County border to the Wisconsin state line and averages about 5,900 users a month during the summer.

According to the village's announcement, the 45-year-old existing bridge has deteriorated over the decades and is narrower than the adjacent path.

The $308,266 project was funded by a $87,600 grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and a cost-sharing agreement between the village and county.

Village officials selected Coperhaven Construction, of Gilberts, to carry out the work as the lowest bidder in a competitive bidding process. The consulting engineer is T.Y. Lin International.

The path was renamed after the late former U.S. Rep. Robert McClory, a longtime Lake Bluff resident, in 1997. In 2014, it was designated as part of U.S. Regional Bike Route 37. The bridge is scheduled to reopen in mid-July.