Red Line ‘L’ extension? New Lake Shore Drive?
Biden’s jobs plan has Illinois and Chicago officials pushing infrastructure wish lists
A $2.3 billion extension of Chicago’s Red Line south to 130th Street. More than 600,000 new water lines across Illinois. A $3 billion total remake of North Lake Shore Drive.
These are among the scores of projects Illinois state, local and federal officials are pursuing anew as President Joe Biden pushes his $2 trillion American Jobs Plan to shore up and transform the nation’s infrastructure.
While Biden’s plan likely faces months of D.C. haggling and is far from a done deal in a narrowly divided Congress, the dusting off of old transportation studies and the writing of new wish lists already has begun.
“This is a once-in-a-century piece of legislation. This is a huge opportunity,” said Democratic U.S. Rep. Marie Newman of LaGrange, who sits on the House Transportation Committee. “We’re working on collaborating regionally, because that will maximize our funding and make it more powerful. There are a lot of competing needs.”
The Chicago region has a backlog of $20 billion in necessary repairs to its public transit systems, according to estimates from Regional Transportation Authority. The region faces a funding gap of $32 billion over the next 30 years just to keep its existing transportation systems maintained and running, according to figures from the
Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. And statewide, Illinois has 8,000 miles of roadway in need of repair and 20 million square feet of bridges that need to be fixed — about one-quarter of the state’s total.
“This bill is good news for the Chicago region. It is long overdue,” said former Republican state lawmaker Kirk Dillard, who leads the RTA. “Infrastructure has been neglected in America for a long time. I, as chairman of the RTA, ride a rail car into Chicago daily on Metra that was delivered when Dwight Eisenhower was the president. I can’t make that up.”
Biden’s sweeping plan includes:
$621 billion in traditional infrastructure repairs, including roads, highways, bridges and transit systems.
$650 billion to improve public housing, and build and retrofit more than 2 million homes while upgrading schools and spending $45 billion to replace the nation’s lead water lines and $28 billion to improve veterans hospitals and federal buildings.
$580 billion for improved research and development, semiconductor manufacturing and incentives to locate manufacturing jobs in the “industrial heartland.”
$400 billion to expand care for seniors and people with disabilities.
The president plans to pay for the $2 trillion package by reversing Trump-era tax cuts, including increasing the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% and increasing the global minimum tax paid from 13% to 21%. It also would end federal tax breaks for fossil fuel companies and increase tax enforcement against corporations.
Many of the plan’s details will be fleshed out by the Democratic-controlled Congress in the coming months, and it is already facing stiff opposition from Republicans who oppose the proposal’s tax hikes and facets of the plan that go beyond traditional roads and bridges. Adding to the plan’s intrigue is the possible return of earmarks to Congress, a process that allows individual lawmakers to fund specific projects.
Before Biden officially unveiled his plan Wednesday, aides for Illinois’ senior U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, who has strongly backed a return to earmarks, already had begun reaching out to key state and city transportation and planning officials to begin assembling a priority list of projects to be funded, sources familiar with the efforts confirmed.
Any influx of federal funding would come on top of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s “Rebuild Illinois,” an ongoing six-year, $45 billion program to repair and upgrade roads, bridges, university buildings, state facilities and other infrastructure. Deputy Gov. Christian Mitchell said Biden’s legislation would allow the state to move through Pritzker’s capital plan faster before moving on to tackle other projects in the state’s backlog.
“In a lot of ways, this is a much bigger version of some of the stuff we’ve been doing in Illinois,” Mitchell said. “This will accelerate the pace of projects already moving.”
A major emphasis of Biden’s plan — and from officials throughout the Chicago region — is placing a priority on projects that create equity for lower-income and middle-class Americans.
“One of the biggest things that we’ve been trying to take into consideration is how we can make sure that we’re evaluating projects in ways that support people who have the least amount of options to get to work, because one of the biggest impediments to low-income households getting to employment centers is not having adequate transportation access,” said Erin Aleman, executive director of the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, the region’s official comprehensive planning organization.
“So as we think about investing more infrastructure dollars, I think it’s really critical we think about getting more people back to work in sustainable ways, and that’s going to be imperative to us recovering stronger than we did after the Great Recession.”
Chicago projects
A key project that would greatly expand transit access in Chicago is the long-envisioned 5.3 mile extension of the Red Line south from its current terminus at 95th Street to 130th Street, adding four additional stations. The $2.3 billion expansion would service an area on the Far South Side and suburban Riverdale long referenced as a transit desert.
“Extending the Red Line is a very important equity focus that we ought to have as a congressional delegation,” said Chicago U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, who is a member of the House Transportation Committee. “I’m hoping that project will benefit greatly from this bill.”
Mitchell, the state’s deputy governor charged with overseeing infrastructure, said the Red Line extension “certainly is on the radar” for federal funding.
Dan Lurie, chief of policy for Mayor Lori Lightfoot, listed the 95th Street extension amid a host of projects the CTA hopes to seek. Much of the city’s focus, he said, will be on public transportation and development around train stations and bus routes.
The CTA has a plan to make all of its 145 “L” stations 100% accessible, with 42 stations still in need of the necessary elevators and escalators to come into compliance at an estimated cost of $2.1 billion. Biden’s plan also could bolster efforts to convert the CTA’s fleet to all-electric buses by 2040. Lurie and Newman listed both projects as priorities for the city, though there is not yet a price tag on the cost to convert the entire fleet.
Garcia and Lurie both emphasized that the city could look to use federal dollars to boost higher-density, transit-oriented developments that could create affordable housing near “L” stations in neighborhoods where such developments have not been driven by private developers. Lurie gave stops along the Green Line as an example while Garcia mentioned Pink Line stops in his district.
“We don’t have a wand we can wave to make that happen, but we can give incentives, create financing and zoning tools to make sure that type of development happens there,” Lurie said.
Garcia noted that past transit-oriented developments along the Blue Line on the Northwest Side and other areas have led to gentrification, a lack of affordable housing and displacement. He said building such projects in areas not experiencing a population boom would only be fair.
“To build affordable housing in transit-rich areas of the city that will benefit working class and low-income communities, that is very exciting,” Garcia said. “That’s how we build more equitable cities and regions across the country.”
Another high-profile project that could benefit from Biden’s plan: a complete reconstruction of North Lake Shore Drive between Grand Avenue and Hollywood Avenue, a 7-mile stretch largely dating back to the 1930s that also is threatened by rising lake levels amid climate change.
City Hall officials are currently studying five possible routes that vary by the number of traffic lanes and bus lanes as well as whether motorists will be able to pay to use bus lanes.
All of the plans include improvements for shoreline protection, park access and traffic signals.
Once the study phase is completed next year, the city plans to enter into engineering work, which could be a candidate to receive federal funding. All told, the entire project is expected to cost more than $3 billion.
“Lake Shore Drive is absolutely on the radar,” Lurie said.
Biden’s plan also calls for replacing all of the nation’s lead water service lines, of which there are more than 600,000 in Illinois. More than 400,000 of those lines reside in Chicago. Mitchell said that work could cost as much as $10 billion statewide.
Lurie called the issue a “a long-standing generational challenge” and said it would be “a major boost if the money that’s being committed here comes through.”
Topping the city’s wish list, Lurie said, is Vision Zero, a program launched under former Mayor Rahm Emanuel aim
ed at reducing pedestrian fatalities, which disproportionately happen on the South and West sides, by rebuilding streets.
Vision Zero designs streets to have protected bike lanes, pedestrian refuge islands and countdown timers to make them safer for nondrivers, among other options aimed at modernizing roads. As part of the process, the city identified 70 miles of high-crash corridors, largely on major streets such as Devon Avenue from California Avenue to Clark Street on the North Side, Stony Island Avenue from 87th to 95th streets, and Pulaski Road from Archer Avenue to 71st Street.
Another Chicago project receiving frequent mention is a more than $454 million track reconstruction to speed travel times on the Forest Park leg of the Blue Line that stretches west from downtown along the Eisenhower Expressway.
Garcia and Newman also raised two mothballed CTA projects as possibilities — extending the Blue Line west to 1st Avenue in Maywood and extending the Orange Line from Midway Airport to Ford City. Both projects are in their respective congressional districts. Neither is currently under consideration by the CTA.
Newman, however, said she’d push for the Orange Line project, saying it would help revitalize the Cicero and Archer avenue corridors, and provide more transit access to areas in need.
“The economic development around there would be enormous,” she said. “It would be a complete game changer to add that Orange Line extension.”
A trio of rail projects receiving more widespread attention from transit leaders, planners and elected officials involve separating passenger and freight rail lines from roadways on the Southwest Side. Part of the CREATE rail program, the projects would reduce freight train congestion, reduce commuter train times and improve rail crossing safety.
One of the proposals, the 75th Street Corridor Improvement Project, spans Chicago’s Ashburn, Englewood, Auburn Gresham and West Chatham neighborhoods.
“We are laserly focused on the completion of that project because it is the freight bottleneck for the nation,” said acting Cook County Department of Transportation and Highways Superintendent Jennifer “Sis” Killen.
Two other CREATE projects Newman and others are pushing involve separating the grades between the Belt Railway of Chicago at Archer Avenue and near the intersection of 63rd Street and Harlem Avenue.
While he opposes Biden’s plan as a whole and the tax hikes that come with it, Downstate Republican U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis of Taylorville said he will advocate for getting the CREATE projects funded because they are crucial to freight traffic that moves through the entire state.
“It’s too important to districts like mine that are Downstate to have an effective and efficient rail system going through the Chicago area,” said Davis, who is a
member of the House Transportation Committee.
Regional needs
Davis, whose district stretches southwest from Champaign down to the St. Louis region, said he has begun surveying local officials about infrastructure needs and said he favors a return to earmarks because he knows what his communities need better than “some faceless bureaucrat who just came off a political campaign sitting in a federal agency.”
Like most fellow Republicans, Davis opposes Biden’s plan because it would raise taxes on small businesses at a time when he said they can least afford it and because it stretches far beyond traditional infrastructure spending. Davis noted he attended a infrastructure meeting last month with Biden in the Oval Office that included three House Democrats, three House Republicans, Vice President Kamala Harris and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Unfortunately, Davis said, Biden now appears willing to pass the package without GOP support. As a result, Davis said the final product will look more like the Green New Deal than a transportation bill.
“They’re going to be forced to negotiate with the far left, who don’t represent rural districts and give a darn about rural highways that need to be expanded into four lanes, or highway projects in and around suburban Chicago,” Davis said. “The percentage of money that will be invested in true infrastructure will be abysmal.”
When asked about the urgency of Biden’s proposal, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle echoed a phrase popularized by her onetime political rival Emanuel: “Never let a serious crisis go to waste.”
The country has needed legislation of this magnitude since at least the Great Recession, she said, and the recent downturn from the coronavirus pandemic presents as apt a stage as any for a sweeping infrastructure bill. That’s why Preckwinkle said she supports the Democrats in Washington passing the legislation no matter what.
“If they have to pass it without Republican votes, they should do that,” Preckwinkle said. “The Democrats should decide what they think is important and what needs to be done and do it. And if the Republicans want to support it, fine. If they don’t, bless them.”
Preckwinkle’s administration plans to look at funneling dollars toward the Tri-State Tollway, or Interstate 294, in order to add new interchanges between Robbins and Crestwood as well as at Chicago Ridge.
Preckwinkle and Killen, the county transportation chief, pointed to the need to revamp Metra train cars and stations, particularly the Rock Island and Metra Electric districts prioritized under Preckwinkle’s South Cook Fair Transit pilot the Cook County Board passed in December.
Pace, the suburban bus system, also could use service upgrades, roadway improvements and traffic signal projects, Killen said.
Preckwinkle’s trial program slashed fares on the Metra Electric and Rock Island lines by 50%, and boosted the hours and frequency of the Pace 352-Halsted bus route in order to promote ridership on southern Cook public transportation.
“We think that this is going to provide good opportunity for station rehab and upgrades that have been long overdue and coming to the end of useful life,” Killen said about the anticipated public transit investment.
Metra listed numerous projects it would like to fund, including rehabbing stations, replacing old train cars, an expansion of rail yards that would allow more express and all-day service, express service from O’Hare International Airport to Union Station, and a flyover bridge to replace a major railroad junction at Grand and Western avenues.
Dillard, the RTA chairman, said signal and technology upgrades remain a major need throughout the region and are a frequent cause for Metra delays.
“The A2 interlock, the artery that takes the trains out of Ogilvie Station, was initially delivered when Hoover was president, and technology has come a long way,” Dillard said of the ancient switching system. “It needs to be upgraded.”
In addition, more than half the 800 bridges in Metra’s system are more than 100 years old.
Bridge repair is a major focus of Biden’s plan, with a promise to repair the worst 10,000 smaller bridges across the country and to fix the 10 “most economically significant bridges in the country in need of reconstruction.”
Those bridges would be chosen through a grant competition. The Interstate 80 bridges over the Des Plaines River near Joliet could fit the bill. Widening the interstate and replacing the two bridges is estimated to cost $1.1 billion and is currently funded in Pritzker’s “Rebuild Illinois” plan.
If the state is successful in getting Biden’s plan to pay for building the new bridges, which handle significant truck traffic from across the nation, it would free up $1 billion for the state to spend on other infrastructure needs.
“It is a thoroughfare, and we are still the nation’s logistics hub,” Mitchell, the deputy governor, said of the I-80 bridges. “We’ll certainly be putting it forward.”
In 2019, billboards were erected near the bridges that said, “Cross bridge at your own risk,” courtesy of construction unions.
“That’s a good example of something that is in need of critical repair,” Democratic Will County Board Speaker Mimi Cowan said. “It’s safe to drive on, but we don’t want to get it to the point where it isn’t. We need to fix these things now.”
Cowan’s wish list also includes funding for improvements to Interstate 55, the Caton Farm-Bruce Road project that would add a new bridge across the Des Plaines River to reduce congestion, improvements to Wilmington-Peotone Road and updates to the lock system in the county’s waterways.
Lake County Board Chair Sandy Hart said for her residents, transportation is one of their top priorities and an area of investment that is “sorely needed.”
“We can’t keep kicking the can down the road,” said Hart, a Democrat. “Things need to be fixed not just in Lake County, not just in Illinois, but across the country.”
Hart said there is a dire need to beef up the county’s stormwater infrastructure following heavy floods in places such as North Chicago over the past decade. The board has said the ferocity of the flooding has ramped up in recent years, with more annual rainfall expected in the future. Should Biden’s plan get the OK, Hart said she would want more money for flood mitigation projects, including along U.S. Route 41 between routes 137 and 176 in North Chicago.
In addition, funding is needed for grade separations at the EJ & E tracks near Old McHenry and Quentin roads as well as for realigning the intersection of Cedar Lake Road and Illinois Route 134 in order to unclog traffic and boost Round Lake’s downtown activity, Hart said.
For Hart, the state of those three ongoing projects is not so derelict it endangers the public, but “these are things that have been on that to-do list for decades.”
In DuPage County, board Chairman Dan Cronin expressed less enthusiasm about all the possible infrastructure spending. The longtime Republican county executive said he remained focused on obtaining vaccine supplies, dispersing federal funds from the CARES Act and beginning to decide how to spend $179 million from Biden’s American Rescue Plan for more COVID-19 relief.
Still, the longtime elected official acknowledged a viewpoint shared by most veteran politicians on both sides of the aisle: “We’re always supportive of infrastructure spending.”