✔ Winfield Road Safety – This has been the busiest topic in our West-Win (WW) community since the last newsletter and General Meeting. As of this newsletter, WW has created an ad-hoc committee of WW members which has met twice already with County officials and is monitoring progress of the studies. Interest in these studies is high both by the County officials and WW members. While the ultimate resolution may not be ready for some time, County Transportation officials are already looking for short-term actions to improve conditions. See also article in this newsletter entitled “Winfield Road: A Dangerous Thoroughfare Under Investigation”.
✔ Blackwell Forest Preserve Fleet Maintenance Campus – The following information was received from Kevin Horsfall, DuPage County Forest Preserve’s Director of Planning & Development.
The Board of Commissioners approved the final design phase for the project last summer. The project is currently in for permitting and will be released for bids in about two weeks with the intention of starting construction this summer. The site plans that were shared in August 2024 are still generally the same. No building locations or site features have changed. The project website was updated a few weeks back when we started the clearing for the trail modifications, and we will update it again once we award a construction contract.
The Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) compressor is still on track to be decommissioned in the next few years. We have only a handful of vehicles remaining that use CNG, so hopefully the compressor is not running as frequently as it used to. Once the remaining CNG vehicles are decommissioned the District will then decommission the CNG compressor as well.
As far as the site lighting is concerned, the District has been addressing that. Some of the light fixtures were removed altogether at the Grounds complex to reduce the glare/glow of that yard, and at the Fleet Building, some interior security lights are on at night, but the lights on the building exterior have been set on a timer to be off between evening and 4 a.m. The pole lights remain on at night, but those have shields on them to reduce glare towards the homes.
Finally, with the proposed Grounds campus that will be starting construction this year, the duration of construction of the new campus will be approximately 18 months. Once the new campus has been completed, the District will move equipment out of the existing facilities and then start demolition on them in 2027. The renovations of the wash bay will be ongoing throughout 2027. This is all dependent on bid results.
➡️ You can find out the latest status with this project on the Forest Preserve’s website at dupageforest.org
✔ Mack Road Bridge – West Branch DuPage River Bike Path – In our last issue, we made the membership aware of City of Warrenville’s planning underway to take significant private properties via eminent domain for construction of a bike path along the north side of Mack Road between Route 59, crossing the DuPage River, and linking to a Forest Preserve trail at McKee Marsh. The on-going question is why the path must be on the north side of Mack Road, impacting several family homes when it appears that adequate space is available to construct the path on the south side of the road on existing public lands controlled by the DuPage County Forest Preserve. It is our hope that with new officials taking office on both sides (City of Warrenville and Forest Preserve), that this issue can be resolved soon and the homeowner properties preserved. A petition (search Mack Road Bike Trail on Change.org) has been established by the owners of the private dwellings, and you can get further details, keep up to date with developments, and sign their petition by using the search information above.