The St. Clair County Transit District (SCCTD) today announced it has been awarded $200,000 in grant funding from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources for the development of Phase 3 of its Fairview Heights – Swansea Trail. This 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 on Bunkum Road. The corridor will add to St. Clair County Transit District’s ever-evolving MetroBikeLink System, which currently consists of 39 miles of interconnecting rails 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.
The new bike trail corridor will also include SCCTD’s Liberty Heights and Bunkum Road trails. The Liberty Heights Trail is a 0.66-mile trail that runs from the intersection of Union Hill Road and Longacre Drive, west alongside Longacre Drive to St. Clair Road. This project is currently under construction and is being led by SCCTD in conjunction with the City of Fairview Heights and Caseyville Township. The Bunkum Road Trail will be completed in two phases. The first will extend 0.19 miles from Grant Middle School on Old Lincoln Trail to Emma Drive, while Phase 2 will run 0.77 miles from Emma Drive to Lea Drive and connect to The REC Complex of Fairview Heights. Phase 1 is currently under design, and Phase 2 is pending Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program (ITEP) grant application.
“We are thankful to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources for granting us this funding and providing us with the ability to further expand the MetroBikeLink System,” commented Ken Sharkey, managing director for St. Clair County Transit District, which established and maintains the MetroBikeLink System. “These interconnecting trails enable thousands of area residents to seamlessly integrate walking, biking and transit usage to get wherever they need to go for work, leisure and exercise purposes. It is a highly valued and well-respected community amenity that we take great pride in and are looking forward to further expanding.”
The first section of the MetroBikeLink System opened in 2002 and was comprised of a four-mile trail, extending from Southwestern Illinois College to the Swansea Transit Center. Since then, this section has expanded into what is known today as the 14-mile MetroBikeLink Trail, which serves as the main artery of the MetroBikeLink System. The trail runs adjacent to the MetroLink alignment from the Shiloh-Scott Transit Center to the Fairview Heights Transit Center, linking residents to six Metro Transit Centers in four different communities and offering seamless integration of biking and transit use via the MetroLink, MetroBus and microtransit service options like the SCCTD Flyer. Over the years, additional trails have been built by SCCTD, including the 4.7-mile SCCTD 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 currently under design or construction – including the 5.2-mile SCCTD MetroBikeLink Trail from the Shiloh-Scott Metro Transit Center to MidAmerica St. Louis Airport. These pathways – along with the connecting trails from other municipalities – combine to provide over 39 miles of connected trails throughout Southwestern Illinois.
To learn more about SCCTD’s MetroBikeLink System, visit www.scctd.org/metrobikelink.