Washington doctor hopes to see trail through Tri-County

Even after living in Chicago, Houston and Seattle, Washington native Dr. Paul Kinsinger wanted to return to his roots.

And he is hoping his children, Adam, 8, and Allison, 10, will do the same if they someday leave their town for college or career opportunities.

What he hopes will bring them — and thousands of other Tri-County natives — back to their roots is a recreational trail built alongside the proposed Eastern Bypass route, which Kinsinger said he hopes will one day connect East Peoria and Peoria to the “rim towns” of Washington, Morton, Germantown Hills and Metamora.

“We don’t have a coolness factor right now,” said Kinsinger, 51, who owns Illini Family Medicine with his brother, Dr. Lee Kinsinger. “So many of my friends say, ‘Why did you go back to Central Illinois?’ This recreational trail would be the answer.”

Kinsinger, who said he has been seriously contemplating and planning this trail for about the past three or four years, is part of the Illinois Department of Transportation’s community advisory group for the Eastern Bypass Route. More than 50 people representing different groups and communities who would be impacted by the proposed Eastern Bypass route make up the committee.

“The community action group will make a recommendation  to IDOT,” Kinsinger said. “But nobody really talked about putting a recreational trail with the road. I think that’s what would make this a quality-of-life project.”

Eric Therkildsen, IDOT program development engineer, said constructing an Eastern Bypass route is not a new idea and that incorporating a recreational trail with it is feasible and is being taken into consideration.

About a year ago, IDOT hosted a standing-room-only kickoff meeting at Countryside Banquet Facility in Washington to inform the public of the $720 million road that could eventually encircle the Greater Peoria area by connecting Interstate 474 near Morton to Illinois Route 6 near Mossville on the east side of the river.

Therkildsen said it could take 10 years before any dirt is turned for a ground breaking, and it could take another 17 after that to complete the entire project. It would be paid for by state, federal and IDOT funds.

The current phase of the project is finding where the ring road’s “corridor” will be located. The corridor is a wide swath of land, wide enough for several possible paths for the future road. A final corridor could be selected by next year. Once the corridor is chosen, the “alignment” phase will identify exactly where the roadway will be located inside the corridor, which could take three years.

Another public meeting is scheduled for next month at the Countryside Banquet Facility in Washington, though a date has not yet been announced.

“We’ll go over everything that has been happening over the past four years with the community advisory group,” Therkildsen said. “We’ll present all that information, along with the preliminary corridors.”

Kinsinger favors a route that would be constructed west of Washington.

“A parallel trail would be engineered so that all of the highway or off-ramp crossings would be under culverts or adjacent to bridges,” he said. “This would allow safe off-road biking from Morton to Washington and Metamora and the Rock Island Trail ... It doesn’t work if it goes east of Washington.”

Kinsinger said he has spent hours in his basement laying out his proposed path and even more time in his office showing his map to his patients.

“They say, ‘This is a really cool thing. Could we do this here?’” Kinsinger said.

Kinsinger said a recreational trail would not only draw former Central Illinoisans back to their hometowns, but it would also make the area more attractive to businesses, promote family togetherness and provide a means for more environmentally friendly means of transportation.
Washington mayor Gary Manier said the Eastern Bypass is important for the region, but Kinsinger’s route has “quite a bit in the way.”

The city has previously been labeled as “against the Eastern Bypass,” but Manier said that is not the case. He just does not want to see it split Washington down the middle, he said.

“The eastern side of the city would be better,” Manier said. “We really don’t want to see it go through the center of town. I feel we are more of a community because we don’t have expressways separating us.”

However, Manier said Kinsinger, who served with him on the Washington Community High School District 208 Board, is both “energetic and passionate.”

“If it comes out that it’s the best and most economical path, we’ll live with it.”

Kinsinger said he knows his voice is not the only one that will be heard, and he encourages Tri-County area residents to voice their opinions and get involved.

“In Seattle, my favorite bumper sticker was ‘If the people lead, the leaders will follow,’” he said. “If the Eastern Bypass and a trail system to enhance our area seem like laudable goals, let’s take the time to hear all voices and opinions and see if a consensus can be reached to improve our quality of life and future.”

For more information about the Eastern Bypass route, visit www.easternbypass.com.