Sanitary Sewer Construction Forces Part Of Fox River Trail To Close

GENEVA, IL — A part of the Fox River Trail in Geneva will close for about two months starting the week of July 27.

The closure is required to make way for the construction of a new sanitary sewer river crossing, city officials said.

The project involves replacing the existing 20-inch sanitary sewer river crossing with two new 20-inch sanitary sewers. The upgrade is designed to reduce the risk of sanitary overflows at the crossing, which carries all sanitary flow from the west side of Geneva to the Wastewater Treatment Plant.

The Fox River Trail will close near the city's Wastewater Treatment Plant, located south of the Union Pacific-West Railway and east of the Fox River. An online map detailing the closure and detour route is available on the city's website.

Northbound trail users will be detoured onto a temporary gravel path connecting to an existing Wastewater Treatment Plant roadway. The detour will navigate trail users directly through the facility’s campus back to the Fox River Trail. Southbound trail users will follow the same route in reverse.

The detour route will be fenced on both sides to ensure the community's safety.

"Since the Wastewater Treatment Plant is an active City facility and a construction zone, the public is urged to exercise caution," officials wrote in a news release. "While the plant's roadway is typically used for City vehicles, the City will limit vehicular traffic to minimize disruptions.

The trail is expected to reopen in late September, weather permitting.