Officials congregate for launch of latest CREATE project
Forest Hill Flyover, 71st Street grade separation will begin untangling 75th Street Corridor bottleneck
TO WEIGH THE SIGNIFICANCE of groundbreaking for Chicago’s Forest Hill Flyover and a related grade-crossing project, consider the adage that “success has many fathers, but defeat is an orphan.”
Then consider the 13 speakers and many other representatives from federal, state, county, and local government that were part of the ceremony for that groundbreaking.
This project is a big deal — both in impact and by price tag, part of the biggest in the 70-project menu for the Chicago Region Environment and Transportation Efficiency program, or CREATE. So everyone wants to be seen as part of the solution to Chicago’s biggest railroading bottleneck.
The work will build a bridge to carry a north-south CSX Transportation main line over east-west tracks used by Norfolk Southern, Metra, and the Belt Railway of Chicago, eliminating two sets of at-grade diamonds. It will also build an underpass at 71st Street, replacing a much-blocked grade crossing.
There actually had been an a prior groundbreaking in 2018. But this time, it came on the verge of actual work: all funding and permitting is set, and portable construction-company offices are in place next to the groundbreaking site.
This is part of the far-larger 75th Street Corridor Improvement Project, a massive untangling of lines that also involves Union Pacific and Amtrak. The overall project was eventually broken into pieces as its overall cost reached more than $1.5 billion. The estimated cost of this portion is about $380 million; it received a $132 million grant in 2018 and has lined up $260 million in state, local, and railroad funding.
Several speakers highlighted that cooperative effort between levels of government and private entities as the key to starting this project, and to the success of CREATE in general, which so far has completed 33 projects. And some suggested that while its achievements were local, its importance as a model for infrastructure work could, or should, extend well beyond Chicago.
“This is a really critical model we need to use nationally,” said U.S. Rep. Marie Newman (D-Ill.), a member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Seconding that notion was Surface Transportation Board Chairman Martin J. Oberman.
“I have held CREATE out as an example in recent years, particularly for the gateways in Houston and New Orleans, which very much, although on a smaller scale, have the same congestion we have here,” Oberman said. “And I have recommended to them, and will continue to do a little bit more than recommend … that they implement a CREATE-like project.”
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot pointed out the operational impacts that will come from separating the right-of-ways at a spot where “30 Metra and 90 freight trains cross each other’s paths each day,” while Metra CEO Jim Derwinski said the impact would extend far beyond the project site.
“What we’ve realized through CREATE is when you fix one part of this network, you actually start seeing benefits anywhere from five to 100 miles out,” Derwinski said. “It’s really impressive.” — David Lassen