North Central College students suggest ways to improve mobility issues along the Naperville Riverwalk
Changes that will improve mobility at the Naperville Riverwalk have been added to the city’s docket this year thanks to a group of North Central College students.
This semester, a class working on master’s degrees in occupational therapy took a practical approach to their studies by examining the ease of getting around different areas in Naperville — the Riverwalk included — for people with physical, sensory or cognitive issues.
While first and foremost an assignment, the students saw a real-world application to the exercise. The city agreed.
Last week, the lessons they gleaned were presented to the Naperville Riverwalk Commission. While several concerns students put forward are already being undertaken by the city — such as the need for more accessible entry points to the Riverwalk — the commission took several others, from uneven pavement to a lack of benches along the 1.75-mile path, to heart.
“We had a good conversation,” said Bill Novack, Naperville’s director of transportation, engineering and development, who helped present students’ suggestions to the commissioners.
“We can’t do everything, but there are several things on their list that either we were already planning to do or will do because of them,” he said.
Before the commission met last week, students sent a letter to Naperville Mayor Scott Wehrli detailing their Riverwalk project and its findings, explaining that as “occupational therapists, it is our responsibility to advocate for the public to ensure equal accessibility to all individuals.” That letter then went to the Riverwalk Commission.
In their written report, students cited a handful of mobility shortfalls with the Riverwalk. The first focused on a ramp at the pathway’s east entrance. Students found to be uneven, with a half-inch bump that makes it “unsafe for wheelchair and walker users.”
“We were not aware of that,” Novack said. Now that they are, the city will address it as soon as next month, he said. The work will be added to a brick resetting and leveling program ongoing around downtown Naperville.
Other issues students flagged include sparse seating along some stretches of the Riverwalk and poor visibility under low-hanging bridges overhead. In response, the commission last week welcomed the possibility of adding more benches as well as “low clearance” caution signs to the walkway.
Of students’ concerns, one of the biggest was that there is only one ramp to enter and exit the Riverwalk, meaning those using assistive devices or strollers have to turn around and walk the path again to exit.
This an issue already on the city’s radar. Another accessible entry point is to be built on the Riverwalk’s west side next year as part of the city’s pending Eagle Street Gateway project.
The venture will correct circulation issues at the intersection between Eagle Street and Jackson Avenue. The city is planning to build out steps, terraces and a path connecting the river to the street, which will make the area easier to navigate.
To that end, improvements also will include an ADA-accessible ramp to the lower Riverwalk west of Eagle Street, Novack said, addressing the students’ concern with the path’s now one-way flow of traffic for people with mobility challenges.
There is one shortcoming students identified that the city won’t be able to tackle: the Riverwalk’s width.
Through their observations, students found that at just over five feet wide, the Riverwalk “is too narrow for a wheelchair to travel through safely” and urged the city to expand the path.
But the Riverwalk doesn’t have a lot of space with which to widen the walkway. It cannot be extended towards the river due to floodplain regulations, Novack said, and expansing in the other direction would require retaining walls to be pushed back — a costly proposition.
Novack acknowledged that if built today, the Riverwalk would likely have a wider surface area. Backtracking on infrastructure already in place, however, isn’t really feasible, he said.
Still, Novack praised students for bringing the issue forward because in the end “input from others in the community makes it better.”
“The community is for everyone, especially the Riverwalk,” he said. “And we take accessibility seriously.”
As for the students of North Central, the exercise bore similar value.
“The holistic nature of our profession ensures that we address all barriers to purposeful living, which in turn helps to reduce costs and improve the health of our patients,” said Dr. Maud Makoni, assistant professor of occupational therapy at North Central College.
“The Community Mobility Access class project is an example of active, engaged learning for our students, a vital tool for training effective healthcare providers.”
