Its coming along…..

Hello friends and neighbors—thank you for your patience and curiosity. As promised, we’re sharing a few progress photos for everyone who’s been wondering what all the activity has been about.

The first major step taking shape at the Belleville Depot is The Rest Stop at Belleville Depot. Designed to serve Badger State Trail users and the broader community, this space will include a water bottle filling station and drinking fountain, bike racks and a bike pump, and—of course—restrooms. It’s meant to be a welcoming pause along the trail: a place to refill, regroup, grab a coffee or ice cream, let the kids play for a while, and come to know the Depot as the place to stop.

As with most construction projects, progress begins below the surface. Right now, the work you see is foundational—plumbing, electrical, and utilities that will quietly support everything that comes next. It may look like a lot of mud and movement at the moment, but this is the necessary groundwork. Soon, what’s been carefully planned will begin to rise above grade, and the vision we’ve been building toward will start to take visible shape.

While not the prettiest, it this is progress. Here we see a large trench where Alliant Energy will run their main power line from a new power pole near the trailer to our transformer onsite.

This is a messy scene of preparation for underground insulation and the foundation the Restroom Building. Here will have a water bottle filling station, bike racks, and a bike pump available to trail users.

The end result will be a park style restroom building with the added amenities to make this a perfect spot for a bikers oasis, family picnics and more. The restrooms will have one fully accessible single occupant restroom, and one family restroom. The family restroom will have a step’n’wash stool for our youngest users, a baby changing station, and paper towels instead of an electrical hand dryer (we all know it can be too loud for the kids).

We hope that The Reststop at Belleville Depot becomes the destination for bikers and trail users for years to come, and an asset for local families enjoying the parks. Further fortifying Belleville as a beacon of recreation and community. A place to see your neighbors and make new friends. To meet new makers and enjoy their culinary creations, to be both at home in history and fully reaching into the fresh ideas brought out here at The Yards in the Belleville Depot.

Here we see a schematic rendering of The Reststop at Belleville Depot. We will have bike racks, water bottle filling station, a bike pump and 2 restrooms open dawn till dusk (typically). This will be CMU building, not heated, with a metal roof. It will be open 3 seasons of the year.