Marathon Pundit: Your Cook County tax dollars at work

This summer a private contractor resurfaced the North Branch Running and Bicycle Path that begins at Milwaukee and Devon in Chicago and ends at the Chicago Botanical Garden in Glencoe. I'm not sure the path needed to be redone, but the asphalt portion looks pretty good. Runners like myself prefer crushed gravel, and that portion of the work is terrible.

And it's not just me who's noticed. Last week while I was running, a cyclist recognized me, and pointed out that the edge of the crushed gravel is not only not well crushed, but the edge of that part of the path, in Harms Woods in Skokie, isn't graded well--it appears the the gravel is destined to be quickly eroded by the elements.

And I'm not road-apple picking here: Similar shoddy work can be found up and down the trail.

As for the photograph on the right, I took that one a couple of hours ago, it's just north of Beckwith Avenue in Morton Grove. This segment of the path hasn't been completed--that's because a water main appears to be broken and water is bubbling up. I haven't been on that part of the trail in a week, the water was bubbling then too.