MCT Riverbend Trail open, Confluence Trail improved
MCT Board members and staff on MCT Riverbend Trail Extension. (Courtesy MCT)
Madison County Transit (MCT) Board of Trustees and staff commemorated the completion of two Riverbend-area MCT Trails projects with ribbon cuttings on Thursday, August 31.
New MCT Riverbend Trail: The first ribbon cutting opened a new extension of the MCT Riverbend Trail in East Alton. The 0.25-mile, 10-foot-wide asphalt extension starts at the MCT Eastgate Park & Ride facility located next to Eastgate Plaza on IL-3 in East Alton and extends to the intersection of Niagara and South Streets, where a one-block on-road connector takes trailgoers to the MCT Riverbend Trail. From here, the MCT Riverbend Trail runs south on the levee next to Wood River Creek, crosses beneath IL-3, and connects to the MCT Confluence Trail. The contractor for the Riverbend Trail extension was Stutz Excavating, and the project engineer was Oates Associates.
MCT Confluence Trail Improvements: The second MCT Trails project, which opened on Thursday, Aug. 31, was the reconstruction of a 0.5-mile segment of the MCT Confluence Trail which runs along the Mississippi River levee from the National Great Rivers Research & Education Center on IL-143 to the MCT Wood River Creek bridge. This portion of the trail once shared a gravel access road with vehicular traffic and was prone to frequent flooding and closure. Thanks to a Bikeway Grant from the Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources, MCT has now separated this portion of the trail from the road, raised it several feet to prevent flooding, and constructed a 10-foot-wide asphalt trail. RCS Construction, Inc. was the contractor for the trail improvements and Sheppard, Morgan & Schwaab, Inc. was the project engineer.
Madison County Transit (MCT) provides multi-modal transportation services for Madison County, Illinois. MCT operates a fixed-route bus service, connecting to MetroLink; express weekday commuter service directly to and from downtown St. Louis; and seasonal express service to the Muny. For elderly and disabled residents who are unable to use the fixed-route buses, MCT provides complementary door to door service. MCT is also responsible for the construction and maintenance of more than 138 miles of bikeways that comprise the MCT Trails system, as well as overseeing RideFinders, the St. Louis region’s FREE carpooling and vanpooling program.
