Regional agency wins $230,000 grant to plan trail along the Mississippi

ROCK FALLS – The Blackhawk Hills Regional Council was awarded a grant for $233,000 to be used to plan further development of the portion of the Great River Trail that runs from Savanna south to the border with Whiteside County.

The federal grant money primarily will be used to do walkability assessments, user counts, offshoot trail identification, community engagement efforts and the like, BHRC Executive Director Daniel Payette said.

It will take a year and a half to two years to complete that planning phase, Payette said.

The BHRC, 309 First Ave., promotes community and economic development, natural resources conservation, and planning in Carroll, Jo Daviess, Lee, Ogle, Stephenson, and Whiteside counties.

The Great River Trail runs 60 miles from Savanna to Rock Island. The BHRC is responsible for planning the portion that runs through those counties.

The federal grant is one of 29 awarded statewide, from a pool of more than $10 million, to be used for planning long-range transportation projects, from EV charging infrastructure to bike networks, the governor’s office said in a news release Friday announcing the grants.

The Illinois Department of Transportation is administering the federal grants, which are designed to advance the objectives of the Illinois Long Range Transportation Plan.

Among the criteria considered were plans that implement asset management strategies and performance-based planning and programming, as well as activities that grow and support economically distressed areas, the release said.