St. Clair County Transit District

The goal of the facility is to help make MetroLink safer for the region.

The 1.7-mile pathway will extend from Illinois Route 161 to Sullivan Drive in Belleville to Frank Scott-Parkway in Fairview Heights.

A project to change Belleville’s station will closely mirror one that’s been completed at the Emerson Park Transit Center in East St. Louis.

The $96 million project will add more than five miles of new track and bike trails to the existing light rail line to connect it to the county-owned airport.

A snack shop at the Belleville MetroLink station now employs people with disabilities, providing on-the-job training to a community that often faces…