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ENGLEWOOD — The much-anticipated Englewood Nature Trail received another boost in funding Friday, pushing forward plans to create a walking and biking destination on the South Side.
Gov. JB Pritzker joined state and local leaders at the Englewood Village Farms, 5822 S. Halsted Ave., to announce the trail was one of 72 projects selected to receive funding under the Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program.
The program — created under Pritzker’s Rebuild Illinois infrastructure plan — financially supports “alternative modes of transportation to preserve visual and cultural resources and improve quality of life,” Pritzker said in a Friday news release.
The Chicago Department of Transportation will get $3 million in funding to transform a 1.75-mile abandoned railroad line into a 12-foot-wide, ADA-accessible, elevated, multi-use trail. The path will run behind 58th and 59th streets between Wallace and Hoyne Avenues.
Overall, $127.9 million will be distributed to 72 statewide projects — the largest round of funding for the Illinois program — Pritzker said. More than 75 percent will be “allocated to projects in communities that best demonstrated a financial need,” according to the news release.
“The Englewood Trail will serve as both a physical connector and a pathway to community revitalization by providing a new space where neighbors can enjoy the benefits of nature and community opportunities,” CDOT Commissioner Gia Biagi said in the news release. “With the added support from Gov. Pritzker and the Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program, CDOT looks forward to bringing this community-led project to life.”
Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club ChicagoThe $3 million in state funding will bring the city closer to meeting its financial goal to build the Englewood Nature Trail — a dream ignited more than a decade ago by neighbors and leaders at local group Grow Greater Englewood.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced last year the nature trail would finally move forward thanks to $6 million in city funding and “pending” federal assistance.
In August, the Mayor’s Office announced city officials and community organizers received $20 million in federal funding to design and construct the nature trail.
At a March community meeting, Englewood residents learned the city received another $407,000 in funding from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources’ Open Space Lands Acquisition and Development Grant.
The total cost to construct the trail is about $72 million, CDOT Director Lubka Benak said in March. The city is “actively searching and filling in applications as much as we can” to gather the estimated total, Benak said at the time.
The city now has about $29.4 million in federal, state and city funding to build the nature trail. CDOT leaders are in the first phase of creating the trail, an engineering and environmental study.
Environmental studies must first be approved through the National Environmental Policy Act before federal funding can be used for construction, Benak said in March. Preliminary conceptual designs created with input from the community must also be approved by the Federal Highway Authority and the Illinois Department of Transportation.
Construction on the trail is “anticipated to start spring of 2026,” Benak said. To use the federal RAISE grant, the city must begin work on the trail by September 2026, Benak said.
If the city doesn’t obtain $72 million by the September 2026 deadline, “we will use the money that we do have to at least construct part of the trail, or maybe phase it out,” Benak said.
“Hopefully, by the next time we meet, we’ll have more great news,” Benak said in March. “Given that the project is federally funded, we do not foresee any issues with the project moving forward in the next several years, so we’re in a really good position to make this happen.”
Community meetings for the Englewood Nature Trail will run until the end of the summer, Grow Greater Englewood representatives said.
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