Local Officials ‘Ride the Rails’
Lipinski, Others Travel Through Chicago and Suburbs
Cong. Dan Lipinski (D-3rd), with Cong. Jim Oberstar of Minnesota, “rode the rails” through his district from Brighton Park to La Grange on June 17, stopping along the way for various meetings with local representatives and officials from the CTA, PACE and Metra.
Lipinski wanted Oberstar, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, to get an idea of what his district needs in the way of public transportation and road and rail improvements before Congress starts work on a new transportation bill due next year.
Traveling in Hi-Rail vehicles equipped to travel on railroads, the two saw where improvements have already been made on rail lines with Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program (CREATE) funds on the way to a morning meeting with Bridgeview Mayor Steve Landek, Oak Lawn Village Manager Larry Deetjen, state Sen. Louis Viverito (D-11th) and other local leaders at the Illinois Harbor Belt Railway headquarters at 67th and Central Avenue in Bedford Park.
The focus of the meeting was the need to finally get the much talked-about Central Avenue Underpass built through Bedford Park, linking the sections of Central between 65th Street in Chicago with 75th Street in Burbank.
Two professors from the Urban Transportation Center at the University of Illinois gave a presentation that showed the need for another through-street to relieve pressure on Harlem and Cicero avenues, which handle most of the traffic in the area crisscrossed with railroad tracks.
“I’ve lived in this area my whole life,” said Lipinski, who grew up on 59th Street in Chicago. “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 that building an underpass rather than an overpass to connect the sections of Central would be easier.
Lipinski noted that Narragansett, a mile west of Central, had been considered as an alternate route, but Central was chosen because it links to Interstate 55.
Lipinski and Viverito noted that some federal funding is already been set aside for the underpass project, but more is needed.
According to 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 Chicago 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 malls),” said DiJohn.
Landek noted that since Toyota Park opened in Bridgeview in 2006, over a million people have visited the stadium at 7100 S. Harlem Ave.
“We have an invested a lot, and the Central Avenue underpass would bring it all together,” said the mayor, whose village has embarked on a plan to build a hotel and waterpark complex beside Toyota Park, attracting many more people there.
“(The need for more public transportation) can’t be stressed enough,” said Landek, noting that most Toyota Park visitors come by car. There are plans to build a bus terminal nearby, and Landek said he and Lipinski have discussed the possibility of extending the CTA’s Orange Line to the park.
“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.
Lipinski and Oberstar also stressed the national importance of improving roads and commuter rail services 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, before getting into an Hi Rail vehicle with Lipinski to travel to La Grange for meetings with Pace and Metra officials.