Jerrod KingeryA project in Chicago designed to modernize what officials call one of the country’s worst freight and commuter rail bottlenecks is getting a big boost from the federal government.
The Illinois Department of Transportation has been awarded an $81 million federal grant for the Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency (CREATE) Program’s 75th Street Corridor Improvement Project.
This investment, the single largest in CREATE’s history, will help to leverage a combined investment of $485.3 million from other public partners and freight railroads.
RELATED: Illinois investing $220 million into 10 road and bridge renovation projects
The 75th Street project is in the Chicago neighborhoods of Ashburn, Englewood, Auburn Gresham and West Chatham along two passenger and four freight rail lines. It involves untangling the railroad tracks from the roadways so that trains, pedestrians, bicyclists and vehicles can more easily move through the community.
The $81 million comes via the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s Nationally Significant Multimodal Freight & Highway Projects (INFRA) program.
In September, the 75th Street project received $209.9 million in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Infrastructure Project Assistance (MEGA) program to rebuild track infrastructure, add tracks, and fix or replace 14 aging bridges and viaducts as well as implement mobility improvements on local surface streets.
The federal grants will be matched by $70 million from IDOT, $29 million from Cook County, $5.6 million from the Chicago Department of Transportation, $11.1 million from Metra and $78.2 million from the freight railroads.
“The 75th Street project is delivering important safety and quality-of-life benefits on the local and neighborhood level, but its impact will be felt through the region, the state and the entire country,” says Illinois Transportation Secretary Omer Osman. “This investment further demonstrates that Illinois is the transportation hub of North America.”
Photo by Engin Yapici on Unsplash
