Kickapoo Rail Trail – Phase II-B

Summary

Kaskaskia Engineering Group, LLC (KEG) provided environmental services for Farnsworth Group, Inc., in support of converting an area of abandoned CSX railroad into a shared-use trail in Champaign County, Illinois, for the Champaign County Forest Preserve District. The overall project, the Kickapoo Rail Trail (KRT) is a 24.5-mile trail that follows the former CSX railroad from East Urbana to Kickapoo State Park in Illinois. Specific to this project was the Phase II-B portion, which includes a 5.1-mile section from 7th Street in Saint Joseph, Illinois, to the Champaign/Vermillion County line.

Project

KEG’s scope of work included submitting the Addendum to the Environmental Survey Request (AESR), as well as the Preliminary Environmental Site Assessment (PESA). The purpose of AESR was to initiate a review of cultural and biological resources in the revised project area. The purpose of the PESA was to evaluate whether current or historical activities on or near the project area may have resulted in significant impacts by hazardous substances or petroleum products, also known as recognized environmental conditions (RECs), and to make a preliminary determination of environmental conditions that may affect the cost or schedule of the project. In support of the completion of the AESR and PESA, KEG’s tasks included a site visit and coordination with the appropriate Federal, State, and local resource agencies.

The PESA resulted in the identification of no RECs within the project area, with the exception of the railroad itself, since railroad corridors include the use of treating railroad ties and the transport of potentially hazardous substances; however, the site reconnaissance and a records search of the project area determined no documented spills or evidence of hazardous substances. The PESA was successfully approved by IDOT in April 2019.

The AESR was submitted in February 2019. IDOT’s Cultural Resources Unit provided a clearance in late February 2019 that ‘No Historic Properties Affected’. The Natural Resource Review was provided by IDOT in July 2019, giving the project the approval for Phase II.