This is huge(.pdf). It's a $15 billion wish list from the Chicago Department of Transportation, 90% of which is transit related. All the projects are close to the Loop-- there's nothing located in our neighborhoods-- but this represents a grand scheme, a master plan for downtown transit improvements. None of it's funded yet, but the Mayor's people are dangling this out as a plum, a byproduct of the Olympics, possibly, that the Feds and State would help the City pay for.
The big projects are a Clinton Street Subway ($3billion) and a West Loop Transportation Center at Clinton & Adams ($2billion). An east-west subterranean bus or rail transitway under Monroe street comes is priced at a relatively modest $200million. You'll note that these projects are all more expensive than the Gold Line and that the Monroe transitway might be added to the Gold Line so that the South Chicago Metra line turns left at Monroe and crosses the Red Line & Blue Line, ending near Union Station. Those are very exciting possibilities.
The Department of Transportation should be commended for seeing their job as including transit & walking. A couple relatively inexpensive pieces of this are pedestrian bridges for Streeterville and the West Loop (at Monroe).
The Loop has outgrown its old boundaries. There's an expanding market for urban living and this plan reflects the importance of the Near North, the West Loop and the South Loop to the future of Chicago. All very exciting. All deserving of our support.
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