The Illinois Department of Transportation will receive over $305 million in funding for two big projects to improve traffic and rail safety in the Chicago area, officials announced Friday.
About $210 million of the grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation Mega program will go the Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program, also known as CREATE, an effort to improve rail transporation in the region. The remaining $95 million will go toward improving the interchange at I-290 and 1st Avenue.
“Today’s funding is a major investment in the future of our transportation infrastructure,” said U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. “Chicagoans will be better connected because of these two infrastructure projects, which will improve the safety and quality of our rail system and roadways. … I’m glad to see these federal dollars go toward improving safety and alleviating congestion in a region that desperately needs it.”
Over $209 million will be used to advance the 75th Street Corridor Improvement Project, also known as the Forest Hill Flyover, a three-mile elevated rail corridor in the Ashburn neighborhood.
Every day, 90 freight trains and 30 Metra commuter trains pass through that area. The project, which began in 2018, will improve train congestion by reducing areas where tracks used by the Belt Railway Company, CSX and Norfolk Southern cross each other, officials said. It will also eliminate a street-level rail crossing on 71st Street and improve safety and convenience for pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers.
The I-290 project will reconstruct portions of the highway, upgrade the interchange at 1st Avenue and adding signal-controls at Van Buren Street and Maybrook Drive, officials said.
A supplemental trunk sewer along I-290 and a frontage road sewer along Bataan Drive also will be installed.
The improvements will address flooding issues and transit bottlenecks on the roadway and flooding issues, officials said.
All of the funding announced was authorized under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, passed in 2021.