Plans for Vermilion County’s segment of the Kickapoo Rail Trail are continuing to advance. The Vermilion County Conservation District Board this week has agreed to spend up to $159-thousand dollars to retain an engineering firm for the next phase of the trail.
The Farnsworth Group will do the engineering for the segment of the trail running from Grays Siding Road to the west side of Oakwood.
Conservation District Executive Director Ken Konsis noted that discussions for the Vermilion County segment of the trail have been underway for about a year. He says agreeing to hire the Farnsworth Group is the next step forward for the Kickapoo Rail Trail.
Konsis told Conservation District Board members that construction on the first segment of the trail in Vermilion County is expected to begin in June.
The Kickapoo Rail Trail is proposed to be a 24 mile long trail running along the route of an abandoned rail line. A segment running from Urbana to St. Joseph opened last August, and more work is scheduled this year to extend the trail from St. Joe to the Champaign-Vermilion County line.
The Vermilion County Conservation District, Champaign County Forest Preserve District and Illinois Department of Natural Resources have all been involved in the project.
The Vermilion County Conservation District would like to see the trail extended to its new Environmental Education Center at Kennekuk County Park. More information about the project can be found here.
