First sign: this on Crain’s earlier this week: “Rising Health Care Costs to Pinch Chicago Area Employees.” The big employers on or near the Cal-Sag—Ashland Chemical, Arcelor Mittal, MetroSouth, Greif Corp, Palos Community Hospital, Moraine Valley Community College, the rail yards, the villages and agencies who employ dozens to hundreds each—already are anchored down by the rising cost of insuring an increasingly unhealthy workforce. And their response is and will increasingly be to push more cost onto the employees.

The Cal-Sag Trail is going to spell relief for workers and their employers. It will serve as health infrastructure that holds down health insurance costs and improves quality of life—but only if the businesses and agencies invest in connecting to it and promoting its use.

Second sign: you see above the wayfinding design that will guide Cal-Sag Trail users along the 30-mile multi-use trail, and into the communities and special places that it connects. They are 14’ tall and made of CorTen steel, which rusts to become stronger and more beautiful. The signs are modular, allowing each community and agency along the trail to highlight their highlights, and to allow trail sponsors to communicate their support. CalSag Final Signs.pdf.

The graphics are pulled from the Signage+Wayfinding & Development Plan, completed this fall by URS for the Cal-Sag Trail Coalition. The Friends of the Cal-Sag Trail provided the funding that leveraged a $250,000 grant from U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, paying for the plan on behalf of the communities, forest preserves and park districts that make up the Coalition. We want the corridor to maximize the Triple Bottom Line benefits that the Cal-Sag Trail can return. Great wayfinding and branding are key components to a major destination trail.

A second Durbin grant for $300,000 will pay for the construction of the wayfinding signs, and Friends of the Cal-Sag Trail is covering that match, too. The benefits to our communities and agencies will rise as the numbers of trail users rise, and from the beginning we’ve been about transforming the places along our corridor into vibrant, healthy, and resilient communities and natural areas.

We’ll premier the entire Signage+Wayfinding and Development Plan at the 2012 Bridges & Blues. When you purchase your tickets for Bridges & Blues, you’re directly contributing to the construction of the wayfinding signs and their installation next fall during the Cal-Sag Trail’s construction. Each dollar you spend on tickets, on the auction, donating at the event matches $4 in federal trail grants, available only as they can be matched. Each dollar you hold back is $4 lost.

Our venue this year is beautiful Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills, who’s offering a fantastic room that our featured artist, Chicago Bluesman Torronzo Cannon, is just going to rock. Get your tickets!

Steve Buchtel, Executive Director

Trails for Illinois

Board member, Friends of the Cal-Sag Trail