BELLEVILLE — The St. Clair County Transit District announced Tuesday it has received $450,000 in federal Transportation Alternatives Program funds to develop Phase 1 of the Fairview Heights-Swansea Trail. This initial phase will construct a 0.25-mile connector trail extending from Illinois 161 and Sullivan Drive/Union Hill Road north to the existing MetroBikeLink System of trails.
The project, located in Fairview Heights, is part of a three-phase effort that will ultimately create a 4.2-mile bike trail corridor stretching from the intersection of Highway 161 and Sullivan Drive/Union Hill Road to Longacre Drive. The corridor will integrate into the St. Clair County Transit District’s MetroBikeLink System, which currently comprises 39 miles of interconnected trails and bike paths throughout St. Clair County, linking six Metro Transit Centers.
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Phase 1 will feature a separated, 10-foot-wide paved shared-use path running parallel to Sullivan Drive/Union Hill Road within the county’s highway right-of-way. It will provide a critical connection to the existing sidewalk system and include ADA-compliant push buttons for pedestrians at the traffic signal on Illinois 161. Future phases will expand the MetroBikeLink to Frank Scott Parkway (Phase 2) and then from Frank Scott Parkway to Longacre Road (Phase 3). Funding for Phases 2 and 3 comes from Metro East Park and Recreation District grants, with additional support for Phase 3 from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.
“We continue to invest in the expansion of the MetroBikeLink System in an effort to further enhance regional connectivity and allow people to be able to get where they need to go,” said Ken Sharkey, managing director of the St. Clair County Transit District. “While this trail connection as part of Phase 1 may be a short expansion, it is critical to linking into the already significant sidewalk system in Belleville.”
The MetroBikeLink System began in 2002 with a four-mile trail connecting Southwestern Illinois College to the Belleville Transit Center. It has since expanded to a 14-mile main artery running adjacent to the MetroLink alignment from the Shiloh-Scott Transit Center to the Fairview Heights Transit Center. The system supports integration with MetroLink, MetroBus, and microtransit services like the SCCTD Flyer. Additional trails built by SCCTD include the 4.7-mile Orchard Loop Trail, 1.3-mile Engelmann Park Connector, 1-mile St. Ellen Park Trail, and 3.5-mile Old Collinsville Road Trail. Several other trails are under design or construction, such as the 5.2-mile MetroBikeLink Trail from Shiloh-Scott Metro Transit Center to MidAmerica St. Louis Airport and the 0.75-mile Liberty Heights Trail scheduled to open this fall.
Founded in 1981, the St. Clair County Transit District oversees 11 MetroLink stations and 14 bus routes in St. Clair County. For more information, visit www.scctd.org or call (618) 628-8090.
