Study to look into sidewalks for Route 173 in Harvard, better access to transit

A grant from the Regional Transportation Authority will help the city of Harvard create walkways where none are now and create safer pedestrian access to transit, officials said.

The city received a $55,000 grant to pay for a Phase 1 engineering study “to explore additional pedestrian ways that are not walking on the highway,” City Administrator Dave Nelson said.

Harvard was one of 10 projects awarded by the RTA’s Access to the Transit program, the agency announced this week.

The study will look at adding pathways along Route 173 from Marengo Road to Route 14, including new sidewalks, accessible crosswalks, and pedestrian access over Mokeler Creek, the Regional Transportation Authority said in a news release.

“Currently, there are no sidewalks along Route 173, forcing pedestrians to walk on the shoulder. At the crossing of Mokeler Creek, pedestrians have to walk in the travel lanes of Route 173 to get over the creek,” according to the RTA.

People using public transportation should be able to bike, walk or use other mobility devices to reach those transit hubs, Nelson said.

Route 14 sees 19,000 cars a day and residents walk on the shoulder to access bus stops and the Metra station, he said.

“That opportunity should be there for people who don’t drive or don’t have a car. They should have options without having to hitch a ride” to transit hubs, he said.

Harvard’s downtown, including its Metra train station, is four blocks north of the proposed improvement area. The project, the “middle section” of a long-range sidewalk plan for the city, is set to bridge the downtown with Route 14 in Harvard’s southern commercial district.

Pace Route 808, which runs between Crystal Lake, Woodstock and Harvard, runs on Ayer Street, Route 173 and Route 14 through Harvard. Extending the sidewalk system along Route 173 will provide increased access to these areas, according to the release.

The RTA program helps cities like Harvard access federal funding they may not be eligible for alone, Nelson said.

“For the last eight years, … the RTA has been taking community projects like the one Harvard has, bundle them together and have one application through a federal program,” Nelson said.

Without the RTA’s help, Harvard would be competing with larger cities for the same federal dollars, he said.

All the approved projects are designed to help reduce pollution by providing transit alternatives, Nelson said. Once engineering is completed, construction could start in 2024, he said.

The city will apply for further funding for construction, Nelson said.