I found an old CREATE video from 3 years ago. The video is actually scary how FUBAR'ed up it is down there.
Any news on the 75th flyover mess?
http://www.createprogram.org/projects.htm
• Video Link
The
Englewood flyover is done [ completed in 2014 ] but what project is being made currently on the 75th Street Corridor [ considered the worst bottleneck in the entire region ] at this point?
Frees up space for increased intercity passenger rail trains at Chicago Union Station by shifting a growing commuter rail line to another downtown terminal that has spare capacity, eliminates delay for commuters and increases speed and capacity for all trains.
I can't find any ground breaking or news lately on it.
It seems we have a lot to still do to finish CREATE to meet its final solution.
This is the best I could find on the news.
https://www.railwayage.com/mw/create...on-from-usdot/
June 12, 2018 132 million from USDOT
…
The 75th Street CIP will eliminate Belt Junction, one of the most congested rail chokepoints in the region, which sees 32 Metra and Amtrak and 98 CSX, Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern, Canadian Pacific and Belt Railway of Chicago freight trains per day. When complete, it will eliminate 18,500 annual passenger hours of delay by removing conflicts between freight and commuter trains, increase capacity at Chicago Union Station, decrease train idling, improve air quality in the surrounding neighborhoods and replace or rehabilitate 36 viaducts for increased mobility.
To date,
29 out of 70 CREATE projects have been completed, with five more projects under construction and 17 in various stages of design.
…
Man this needs to get done already..... Any movement on it yet? We should follow this as much as some of our buildings. 132 from the fed is a start but this looks like a multi Billion dollar knot to untie. I expect it will take more than 2 years as this Trib article stated.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/c...605-story.html
State gets $132 million federal grant to reduce South Side railroad delays
According to IDOT, one of the advantages of the project is that it would connect Metra's SouthWest Service to the Rock Island Line around 74th Street and Normal Avenue, which would allow the service to terminate at the underused LaSalle Street station rather than at clogged Union Station, thus reducing delays and freeing capacity for more intercity rail service.
The project will take two years to finish, according to IDOT. When complete, it will cut 18,500 annual passenger hours of delay, according to CREATE, a public-private effort to increase the efficiency of the passenger and freight rail infrastructure in the nation's busiest railroad hub.
“This is a big win for our region,” Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., said in a statement.
Construction is expected to start this fall.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/c...709-story.html
The timeline on a fully completed CREATE could look make the TARP deep tunnel look quick. Besides both Lipinski's what did Obama do for CREATE when he was around. He had his own transportation secretary from LaHood that IMO could have done a lot more federal dollars on this one instead of the politically failed somewhat faster intercity rail network that got killed in the House or Reps.
Obama really did not throw enough bones $ on this one when he had the chance while still in office IMO.
I found a bit more of it but it still hasn't happened yet
https://www.businessinsider.com/chic...urts-us-2016-7
This spot in Chicago is the epitome of a more than $100 billion problem facing America
In real, economic terms, the Chicago rail hub could potentially affect somewhere between $657 billion and $799 billion annually, according to the same Amtrak study.
According to all news thus far only 1/4 of the billions have been spent yet and likewise only a 1/4 of CREATE is finished.