Image courtesy of St. Clair County Transit District
BELLEVILLE, Ill. – The St. Clair County Transit District has been awarded a $200,000 in grant from the Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources for the development of Phase 3 of its Fairview Heights, Ill. – Swansea, Ill. Trail.
The new 1.1-mile trail segment is part of three trails in Fairview Heights that, once complete, will combine to create a 4.5-mile bike trail corridor extending from the intersection of Highway 161 and Sullivan Drive to The REC Complex of Fairview Heights. The corridor will add to the St. Clair County, Ill. Transit District’s ever-evolving MetroBikeLink System, which currently consists of 39 miles of interconnecting trails and bike paths in Southwestern Illinois.
Phase 3 of SCCTD’s Fairview Heights – Swansea Trail will feature a 10-foot-wide paved bike and pedestrian pathway that will extend along Union Hill Road from Frank Scott Parkway north to Longacre Drive, connecting more than 1,500 residents to the trail. Design engineering will get under contract later this month. The first two phases of the SCCTD’s Fairview Heights – Swansea Trail are also in progress and will include a 0.21-mile trail segment that will extend from Illinois 161 and Sullivan Road north to the existing MetroBikeLink Trail as part of Phase 1, and another 1.53 miles of trail running alongside Sullivan Drive from the MetroBikeLink Trail north to Frank Scott Parkway as part of Phase 2. Phase 1 is pending Transportation Alternative Program (TAP) grant funding. Phase 2 is currently under design. When all phases are complete, the Fairview Heights – Swansea Trail will be 2.84 miles in length and a key part of the bike trail corridor that will connect the communities of Belleville, Swansea and Fairview Heights to the MetroBikeLink and each other.