News

Railroad project underway; may ease 47th/East traffic congestion

By James Pluta

Work has begun on an Indiana Harbor Belt Railway project that, upon
completion, could drastically cut down the large of amount of vehicular
traffic congestion at its many grade crossings, particularly where the
tracks cross 47th Street and East Avenue at the western border of
Brookfield and McCook.

The installation of a new traffic control system on the decades-old
railroad freight line is part of a $100 million federal grant through the
Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program
(CREATE).

The project, being installed on three tracks in a seven-mile stretch
between La Grange and Bellwood, is designed to allow trains to move more
quickly and should shorten the times spent by motorists and pedestrians
trying to get through the intersections.

Hand-operated switches are being replaced with power switches the system,
which could expedite the speed of some 56 trains that pass through the
area every day — cutting their estimated two-hour trip through the area to
only 20 minutes.

Train speeds, which are now 20 mph or less, could increase to 30 mph, said
officials.

The funding was announced last summer by U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-3rd
District, of Western Springs, after he secured the grant in the 2005
federal surface transportation bill. However, grant requirements mandate
the project be done by 2012.

Lipinski has long advocated construction of an overpass or underpass at
the 47th and East crossing, but has yet to secure complete funding for
such a project.

However, it remains to be seen whether the 47th and East crossing will be
among 31 such projects — designed “to minimize congestion at high-traffic”
crossings — under the CREATE Program.

The often congested 47th and East crossing, at the border of Brookfield,
La Grange and McCook, has never been fixed, in large part perhaps it is
located in a quasi-industrial, sort-of no-man’s land at the eastern edge
of one town and the northern and southern borders of two others.

It’s where countless workers from the former Reynolds Aluminum plant in
McCook used to bypass, where shoppers headed to Hodgkins’ Quarry Mall or
the busy nightlife of the La Grange Road or Ogden Avenue business
corridors zipped through or where motorists seeking a short cut to one
place or another often find themselves — stuck.

At a November 2007 Town Hall Meeting, Lipinski expressed his and his
predecessor father’s long-held vision for that area and his support for
this latest modernization project — which was ultimately approved last
June.

“We want to put in an underpass there so people don’t get stuck by the
trains anymore,” he said at the time, noting it was one of two dozen
underpasses slated for the area. “We all have problems getting around ...
and (the new traffic control system)  is going to help alleviate a lot of
that.”