BELLEVILLE, Wis. — The Village of Belleville has been awarded $1.716 million in federal Transportation Alternatives Program funding for a bicycle and pedestrian underpass beneath state highways 69/92, creating a grade-separated crossing between neighborhoods north of the highway and schools and community facilities to the south.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation says the project will include shared-use path connections on both sides of the highway and provide an ADA-accessible crossing intended to reduce conflicts between pedestrians, bicyclists and vehicles.

Belleville has been working toward that solution through its Bike, Pedestrian and Safe Routes to School Plan. Village planning documents say residential growth north of Highway 69/92 has left students and other pedestrians needing to cross the state highway to reach schools, the community pool, parks and other destinations on the south side.

For New Glarus, the project may be more than neighboring-community news. Highway 69 creates a similar barrier here — and in some ways a more complicated one — because the corridor separates or interrupts connections among the Sugar River State Trail, parks, school athletic facilities, the Community Complex and New Glarus Brewing Company.