It just struck me - I posted earlier about the bicyclinginfo.org’s benefits calculator for trails, and how it reported that the Calumet-Sag Trail would generate $5 million annually in recreation dollars. A lot of that revenue is predicated on Chicago’s access from the lakefront trail system, delivered by the Calumet-Sag Trail’s connection to the Burnham Greenway.

That access is blocked, right now, by the Burnham Greenway Gap - a 1.5 mile slash of rail lines in the Greenway’s belly between the south suburbs and the city, just north of the Calumet-Sag Trail’s connection point. A bridge over the rail lines will run about $2.5 million - a lot of money to close a short distance.

But that’s only half a year’s revenue from recreational use that will flow into the Cal-Sag Corridor once the entire Calumet-Sag Trail opens (as early as 2011, as late as 2013).

Closing the Burnham Greenway Gap and connecting the Calumet-Sag Trail is a value play that would make Buffet proud.

The Southeast Environmental Task Force created the video above about the Burnham Greenway Gap, with production help from GLStudios in Blue Island.

—Steve Buchtel, Board  Member, Friends of the Calumet-Sag Trail