75th Street CIP

[johndoe780]

http://abc7chicago.com/traffic/metra-ey ... r-/432560/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A billion dollars.... why just wow....

Does anyone know how much would Metra's share be out of this CREATE project?

This is going to be a tough sell. State and feds are broke and grants are extremely limited. Sad to see Metra didn't get the TIGER grant in Elgin.

[justalurker66]

Does anyone know how much would Metra's share be out of this CREATE project?

It depends on what the federal government is offering when this is eventually funded. After that the "local share" would be divided by the freight roads, Metra and the state.

There are a lot of good projects waiting for money across the country.

[MACTRAXX]

Everyone:

I an familiar with BRC's 75th Street Corridor from my Chicago "visiting days" of 1973-1988 and I found this very interesting...

Does anyone know if there is more information concerning this project and what it will cover?
The price tag alone means it must be somewhat elaborate...

From what I see Metra will grade separate its track(s) from the east end of Norfolk Southern's Landers Yard along with a flyover of
the CSX tracks at Forest Hill Interlocking and construct a connection to the RI District in the vicinity of Hamilton Park at 74th and
S Lowe Streets from the area of the curve to the former C&WI line northbound...

This could open a interesting option - SWS could become the only Metra line to be able to serve two Downtown terminals depending
on how much service gets re-routed to LaSalle Street Station...

Will this project include eliminating the grade crossing where Southwest Highway/Columbus Avenue crosses the BRC trunk?
I ask remembering how troublesome that crossing was - for that matter it was my introduction to the lunacy of motorists
running crossing gates back in the mid 70s and I never forgot what I witnessed there trainspotting concerning close calls...
The 75th Street Corridor to the E of that point thankfully itself is grade separated...

Is there any thought of eliminating Hayford Junction (75th and Central Park) or Ashburn Crossing (83rd and SW Highway/
Central Park - at Ashburn Station) as part of this project or in the future?

These look like they can be good improvements to the SW Side rail infrastructure for the future...

MACTRAXX

[justalurker66]

The official website for the project is at http://www.75thcip.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and might help with the deeper questions.

"Chapter 2 – Alternatives" of the FEIS available on this page of the linked site gives a detailed description.

[CraigDK]

Instead of creating a new thread, it seemed easier to just revive this one. I noticed a news release from Metra today that referred to the 75th St CIP, and after looking around realized that very little has been mentioned about this project.

The 75th Street Corridor Improvement Project, the largest of all the CREATE Program projects, is progressing forward. In 2018 the project received a $132M INFRA grant, that when combined with money allocated (unsure at the moment of how much) from other sources, including the state, has allowed the project to proceed. This funding is enough to complete the engineering work for all four components of this project, and the construction of the Forest Hill flyover (CSX over the BRC, Metra, and NS) and the 71st Street grade separation.

The Final EIS was completed a couple of months before this thread was!

A timeline for the funded portions of the project can be found here. Engineering began last year and early construction is expected to begin later this year.

[justalurker66]

Thanks for the update.

[metraRI]

Here are the proposed rail maps of what everything should look like at the end of it all.

RID Connector:
http://www.75thcip.org/files/upload/doc ... ection.pdf

Forest Hill:
http://www.75thcip.org/files/upload/doc ... ossing.pdf

Metra/Landers:
http://www.75thcip.org/files/upload/doc ... Avenue.pdf