[brian_b]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

^It's worth mentioning that CN is about to begin reconstruction of the St. Charles Air Line (the line that runs through the South Loop at 1530 S). They'll be replacing overpasses built for four tracks at Michigan, Wabash, State, Dearborn, and Clark with new single-track spans that don't need any pillars within the street ROW. The centerline of the single remaining track will be moved to the north slightly in order to ease the curves at either end a tiny bit. All bridges except Dearborn will be Cor-Ten steel. The decorative ironwork at Michigan will be saved and—possibly—donated to someone who wants it.

Nothing will be done with the now-unused portion of the ROW, south of the active tracks, and the unused abutments will remain. Officially, that's supposedly because the actual ownership of the SCAL is a partnership, and so BNSF or UP might conceivably have rights to a second track there (the SCAL was never an actual corporation, but just a handshake deal between four of Chicago's earliest railroads). I suspect the real reason is that CN expects to be bought out at market rates if the city ever wants to do a greenway up there, connecting lakefront to riverwalk.

Do you have any additional info about this project? I am SCAL-adjacent and find it hard to believe that they could go single track here - I see two trains side by side on a frequent basis. Also, just west of Clark is a junction with Metra lines - are they doing anything about that?