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Passenger Trains > Metra gets grant to replace Fox River bridge (Elgin, IL)Date: 10/28/15 13:48 Metra gets grant to replace Fox River bridge (Elgin, IL) Author: illini73 The parade of TIGER VII grant announcements continues - this from Progressive Railroading Daily Rail News today:
"The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has awarded Metra a $14 million grant through the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery VII (TIGER) program, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) announced yesterday. "The Chicago commuter-rail agency will use the funds to replace the existing 134-year-old bridge over the Fox River. A new double track bridge will be built to eliminate a traffic bottleneck between freight rail and Metra’s Milwaukee District-West Line. The new bridge also will allow for new positive train control technology, according to a joint press release from the lawmakers." The PR is a bit misleading in that the bridge girders date from 1905 and 1926, though the piers may be from the original 1881 structure. Metra originally applied for a $17 million grant, with Metra contributing $11 million and Canadian Pacific covering $6 million of the project's estimated cost (it now seems they are $3 million short, no?). [info. in this paragraph from a May 16, 2015 Progressive Railroading article on the TIGER grant application.] The reference to PTC comes from the existence of CTC control points at either end of the existing single-track bridge which would otherwise have to be replaced. Those control points were probably last upgraded in 1955 when the Milwaukee Road installed CTC to accommodate the UP Streamliners re-routed onto the line that year. A nearly-identical C&NW bridge on the line from West Chicago to Rockford, IL is right alongside. Photos of the Metra/CP and UP(C&NW) bridge available here: Bridge Hunter - CP Fox River Bridge Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/15 13:58 by illini73. Date: 10/29/15 09:30 Re: Metra gets grant to replace Fox River bridge (Elgin, IL) Author: NebraskaZephyr Typical short-sighted agency mentality. They can *eliminate* the B-35 control point, never realizing that that short piece of single track also serves as a universal crossover and is used for that purpose several times a day.
After the project is finished and they realize their mistake, how many millions will be spent on consultancies and environmental impact studies to put in a set of crossovers? Sigh. NZ |