Englewood flyover project part of $6.8 billion in transportation spending reductions proposed in Congress
From The Chicago Tribune
Funding is in jeopardy for construction of a major rail-bridge system to ease at least some of the freight and passenger train congestion in the Chicago region, officials warned Thursday.
The argument against building the Englewood flyover bridges on Chicago’s South Side at one of the nation’s busiest railroad junctions has nothing to do with the merits of the project.
Instead, the long-planned bridge is among billions of dollars worth of infrastructure improvements that are being threatened by the battle playing out in Congress over the soaring national debt.
Democratic Illinois lawmakers said Thursday they will fight a move by Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives that scrapped funding for the Englewood bridges, which are designed to increase rail capacity and eliminate a bottleneck that officials say causes thousands of hours of delays each year for Metra and Amtrak riders as well as bogging down freight traffic. Republicans contend the cuts must be made to slow the growth of the national debt.
“This mindless cut is a clear signal that the House-passed bill is not the product of a thoughtful effort,” U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said after touring the bridge site with U.S. Reps. Dan Lipinski and Bobby Rush, both Chicago Democrats.
“Yes, we need to cut spending. … (But) we shouldn’t abandon our commitments to creating jobs and economic development in the midst of this recession,” Durbin said.
Last year the Federal Railroad Administration awarded Illinois $133 million to help construct the bridges. The rail-to-rail flyover would be built from 57th Place to 69th Street to carry north-south Metra Rock Island District trains on three tracks over the four-track east-west Norfolk Southern line that is also used by Amtrak.
The project design includes a possible fifth track for higher-speed Amtrak trains.
Seventy-eight Metra Rock Island trains, 14 Amtrak trains and about 46 Norfolk Southern freight trains inch through the pinch point each day. Separating the tracks is also a step toward reducing delays on Metra’s SouthWest Service line, officials said.
The Englewood flyover would create about 1,450 jobs, the lawmakers said.
But in House legislation, Republicans killed funding for the project, as part of $6.8 billion in transportation spending reductions hitting the states — money that the Obama administration has already promised, according to lawmakers from Illinois.