Rahm breaks ground on 40-acre bike park near Lake Calumet

Chicago is transforming a former industrial site into a 40-acre bike park that officials say will be the first of its kind in the Midwest.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Michael Kelly, the Chicago Park District’s superintendent, broke ground Saturday on the Bike Park at Big Marsh, which will be part of a 270-acre habitat restoration being built about 20 miles south of downtown, near Lake Calumet.

The bike park will include a single-track bike trail, a dual-slalom course, pump park, dirt jump trail, a bike skills area and a cycle-cross course. It’s modeled after Valmont Park in Boulder, Colorado, which opened in 2011 and draws hundreds of cyclists a day during summer months.