Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program (CREATE) projects continue on Belt main line.

Grade separation work at Columbus Avenue and Archer Avenue in Chicago will start in late spring and summer respectively. This will take more than two years to complete.

Chief Engineer Tom Lyons said that in eliminating crossings and adding new landscaping and sidewalks, this will “provide a lot of community benefit,” including less train interference for motorists and pedestrians.

The City of Chicago is managing both projects. A contractor has been selected for the Columbus Avenue project and Archer Avenue soon will go out to bid. For both projects, Belt employees will close down the crossing and install a shoofly, 1,500 feet at Columbus Avenue and nearly a mile long at Archer Avenue. The temporary tracks will reroute Belt main line and facilitate construction, which will include
digging underpasses.

“There’s a lot more going into the Archer Avenue project due the number of switches and track geometry,” Lyons said, noting it would require multiple phases and outages.

An even larger CREATE project is in the early design stage. It will extend the Harlem Avenue Bridge in Bedford Park at 65th Street and eliminate a crossing at 59th Street. Lyons estimates it will be as many as five years before ground is broken for this effort.