Illinois DOT commissions environmental study of high-speed rail line

Written by jrood

The Illinois Department of Transportation has selected Hanson Professional Services of Springfield to evaluate environmental consequences of building a new rail line between St. Louis and Chicago for high-speed passenger trains, the State Journal-Register reports. Hanson will work with the Parsons Transportation Group, a branch of the construction and engineering firm of Parsons Corp., headquartered in Pasadena, Calif.

The firms will prepare an
environmental impact statement on the new track proposal, which carries an
estimated cost of more than $1 billion.

Josh Kauffman, IDOT
spokesman, said the study is expected to be complete in the fall of 2012. There
will be public hearings on the study and opportunities for both citizens and
public officials to provide written comments, he said.

The state last year
unsuccessfully sought federal stimulus money to build the track, which would
have gone alongside existing Union Pacific tracks. The Federal Railroad
Administration, however, agreed to pay for half of the $2.5 million study to
evaluate the parallel track proposal. The balance is coming from the state.

The federal government has
approved more than $1.1 billion in improvements to the existing track to
accommodate high-speed rail, but the bulk of the money hasn’t been released.

In Illinois and elsewhere,
freight rail companies that own rail corridors have objected to proposals that
could require the companies to pay financial penalties if passenger trains don’t
run on time. Without approval from the railroads, high-speed passenger rail
projects on freight lines cannot go forward.

According to grant applications
IDOT submitted to the Federal Railroad Administration last year, congestion
could be in the works on the St. Louis-to-Chicago line. The Union Pacific is
building a freight depot in Joliet that is expected to substantially increase
freight traffic on the line.

A parallel track would more
than double the corridor’s capacity for trains and ease crowding problems.

In Springfield, city
leaders object to putting more trains on Union Pacific’s track through downtown
and the medical district. Hanson is already working on an environmental impact
statement that will assess the pros and cons of consolidating rail traffic on
the three rail corridors through the city. IDOT is paying for that study.

Kauffman said the study of
the new track doesn’t necessarily mean that a new line would be built along
existing Union Pacific track through Springfield.

"All options are being
considered," Kauffman said.

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