By Heather Graves
Correspondent
BELLEVUE – Over the last several years, the Village of Bellevue has been working to provide the community with safe pedestrian and bike opportunities.
Now, thanks to a federal grant for the reconstruction of Allouez Avenue, from Hazen Street to Main Street, the village will be able to continue to expand those opportunities.
Village Administrator Diane Wessel said the village has been steadily adding bicycle and pedestrian facilities, creating linkages to the Greater Green Bay area and tapping into the growing population that opt for non-motorized transportation.
“Study, after study have shown that adding bicycle and pedestrian facilities not only increases the perceived livability of a community, but also has positive financial impacts, such as added economic activity through users patronizing businesses, reduced costs of car-pedestrian/cyclist crashes, decreased medical costs due to physical activity and improved air quality,” Wessel said.
She said the $3 million project, planned for 2024, urbanizes the stretch of Allouez Avenue – meaning it upgrades the road from rural standards to urban standards with the inclusion of curb, gutter, sidewalk and bike lanes.
Wessel said the project will fill the current gap in sidewalk and bike lanes between Hazen Road to Main Street.
“These benefits are only compounded when sidewalks, bike lanes and trails are connected to region-wide facilities,” she said. “For Bellevue, tapping into the regional greater Green Bay market by connecting facilities just makes good economic sense.”
Wessel said the remaining stretch of Allouez Avenue without sidewalk or bike – from Bellevue Street to the East River – is in Bellevue’s capital improvement plan for 2021.
The completion of these two projects will provide continuous pedestrian and bicycle access from Manitowoc Road in Bellevue to Webster Avenue in Allouez.
Most recently, bike lanes were painted on Town Hall Road in conjunction with the Hazen Road reconstruction, and it is planned to incorporate sidewalks and bike lanes into the upcoming Guns Street and Manitowoc Road projects.
Wessel said over the next five years, bike- and pedestrian-friendly projects are planned on: Steffens Way, Ontario Road and Willow Road sidewalks; East River Trail asphalt and boardwalk improvements; and a dedicated crosswalk of the East River Trail at Allouez Avenue.
Longer-term plans, she said, include a pedestrian and bicycle bridge over the East River connecting to Riverview Park in Allouez and extending the East River Trail boardwalk system into the Mossakowski Family Dog Park, tentatively scheduled for 2025, pending funds.