Ride Rails for Transportation
Lipinski, Officials Travel Through Southwest Side and Suburbs
Cong. Dan Lipinski (D-3rd), with Cong. Jim Oberstar of Minnesota, literally rode the rails through his district from Brighton Park to La Grange on Tuesday, stopping along the way for various meetings with local representatives and officials from the CTA, PACE and Metra.
Oberstar is the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, so Lipinski wanted him to get a good idea of what his district needs in the way of public transportation and road and rail improvements before Congress begins consideration of a transportation bill next year.
Traveling in Hi-Rail vehicles equipped to travel on railroads, the two were able to see where improvements have already been made on rail lines through the Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program (CREATE) on the way to a morning meeting with local political leaders at the Illinois Harbor Belt Railway headquarters at 67th and Central Avenue, in Bedford Park.
The thrust of the meeting was the need to get the funding to finally get the much talked-about Central Avenue Underpass built through the industrial property in Bedford Park, connecting 65th Street in Chicago with 75th Street in Burbank.
Suburban mayors and officials such as Ald. Mike Zalewski (23rd) and state Sen. Louis Viverito (D-11th) joined them for a presentation on area transportation and traffic patterns by two professors from the Urban Transportation Center at the University of Illinois that indicated the need for another through-street to handle the volume of traffic.
“The volume of road and rail traffic here is amazing. The tour has been much more detailed that I have seen in the past,” said Oberstar.
“I’ve lived in this area my whole life,” said Lipinski, who grew up on 59th Street.
“It’s an issue that has been talked about for 40 years and now we have to do it.”
He explained to Oberstar that the latest engineering study found it would be easier to build an underpass rather than an overpass to connect Central.
Lipinski noted that Narragansett, two miles west of Central, has also been considered as an alternative but because Central also links to Interstate 55, it was decided to keep that route.
Lipinski noted that some federal funding is already been set aside for the underpass project, but state funding is needed now.
According to the statistics provided by UIC professors Piyushimita Thakuriah and Joseph DiJohn, Chicago is the world’s third-busiest intermodal hub, where trucks and trains connect.
Currently, there is no north-south connection between the city and suburbs for the three miles between Cicero and Harlem avenues.
As was pointed out during the presentation, the delays getting across the city from north to south amount to 11 million lost hours a year, costing $910 million.
The professors noted that there are also three high schools in the area whose students must take circuitous routes by bus and car to school
“South Cook County and the South Side of Chicago needs jobs. (Building the underpass) would improve the business climate in the area, and access to the two shopping centers nearby (Ford City and Chicago Ridge Mall),” said DiJohn.
Lipinski and Oberstar also stressed the national significance of improving road and rail traffic in the area, and throughout the Midwest.
“I compare it to O’Hare Airport, if there is a delay there, its causes problems around the country,” said Oberstar, who is also seeking better funding for commuter rail lines like Metra.