Stadium-goers to get benefit of stimulus funds to unclog rail congestion
Written by jrood
The $100-million federal grant awarded to the Chicago region Feb. 17 to unclog rail congestion will benefit Jimmy Buffett Parrotheads and Chicago Fire soccer aficionados along with freight haulers, motorists and rail passengers, the Chicago Tribune reports. That's because $20 million of that money will go toward building a rail/highway underpass on 71st Street, west of Harlem Avenue and across from Bridgeview's Toyota Park, a 28,000-seat sports and music venue.
The underpass is one of
five Chicago-area rail projects receiving part of $1.5 billion in Obama
administration stimulus money designed to spur the economy, develop
infrastructure and create jobs.
The rail projects are
lumped together under a rail congestion relief program known as the Chicago
Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency program, or CREATE, a
partnership of railroads and transportation agencies. With the strong support
of state and federal officials, particularly CREATE’s chief proponent, U.S.
Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., the rail program beat out scores of other agencies
for stimulus money.
The Illinois Tollway
unsuccessfully sought $300 million to help build an interchange where
Interstate Highway 57 and the Tri-State Tollway (Interstate Highway 294)
intersect. The tollway also lost out in its bid for $38 million to set up a
Dial-511 traffic and travel information system. The tollway and Pace had
partnered on a losing $200 million proposal for Tri-State express buses.
Observers said Wednesday
that the CREATE program had the edge on the other applicants from the start.
"I am surprised that
CREATE didn’t get more," said Jim LaBelle, a transportation expert with
the civic group Chicago Metropolis 2020 and a Metra director.
Peter Skosey of the
Metropolitan Planning Council said the Illinois Department of Transportation,
one of the CREATE partners, "put all its eggs in one basket" with the
rail program. "IDOT tried to corral everybody around CREATE," Skosey
said.
That’s not to say CREATE
didn’t merit the money, the experts said, since Chicago is the largest U.S.
rail freight chokepoint, handling one-fourth of the nation’s rail traffic.
Another CREATE project, the
construction of new tracks and a bridge on the Union Pacific line in the
western suburbs, will aid Metra passengers by speeding freight trains.
Fifty-nine Metra trains a day with more than 30,000 passengers a day move
through the area.
"That work will get
some of the freight trains out of the way of commuter trains," Metra
spokesman Michael Gillis said.
Bridgeview officials have
long sought a vehicle underpass below four sets of tracks near Toyota Park,
built in 2006. Trains cause 31 daily hours of motorist delays, transportation
officials said, and traffic woes are exacerbated during soccer matches or
concerts.
Lipinski said CREATE
projects, including the underpass, had an advantage because they are
"shovel-ready." Work can start this year and be done in 2012.
Nationally, the CREATE
program’s $100 million was the second-largest single award among 51 projects
that were given funding Feb. 17 by U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a
former Illinois congressman.
Also receiving funding in
Illinois were the Tri-City Port District in Granite City, $6 million, and the
Normal multimodal transportation facility, which received $22 million.
"I believe if you look
at major projects that need to be done across the country, CREATE is definitely
in the top three," Lipinski said. "Chicago is the rail hub of North
America."
