Starved Rock trail improvements about half finished

An $18 million project to improve trails at Starved Rock State Park will not be finished by New Year’s, but park officials hope to announce a new round of trail reopenings by Thanksgiving.Monty Bernardoni, site superintendent for Starved Rock and Matthiessen state parks, said Friday that workers have made substantial progress on the trails and hope to have a more complete outlook by Thanksgiving. The revised completion date is June 1.“I would say we’re over 50% completed, for sure,” Bernardoni said. “There are a few things we need to tie up to get that percentage higher and it will, obviously, continue into next year.”The Illinois Department of Natural Resources had launched into a $33.8 million program of upgrades. While about half those funds were allocated for the sewage treatment plant and infrastructure that doesn’t directly affect tourism, the other half was allocated for trail improvements.Some of the improvements were urgently needed. Bernardoni said many of the materials used