CHICAGO — CSX announced Tuesday (July 8, 2025) that the final girder has been placed for the Forest Hill Flyover, a landmark moment in the portion of the CREATE’s massive 75th Street Corridor Improvement Project that will separate CSX main lines in South Chicago from tracks used by Norfolk Southern, Metra, and the Belt Railway of Chicago.
The project, known as P3 in CREATE’s list of some 70 infrastructure improvements throughout the Chicago area, will carry CSX’s main lines over the lines used by the other railroads. It will eliminate what is currently an at-grade crossing used by 30 Metra SouthWest Service trains and about 35 freight trains daily. CSX, the lead railroad on the project, has overseen design and construction. Groundbreaking was held in fall 2022 [see “Officials are out in force …,” Trains News Wire, Oct. 25, 2022]; at that time, completion was anticipated in the third quarter of this year.
“This project is going to be a game-changer,” Brett Guarino, CSX project manager II, design and construction, said in a press release. “Once the bridge is complete, it will significantly improve the movement of trains through this area.”
The $380 million flyover project is just a piece of the 75th Street Corridor project, which was broken into five smaller projects and overall is expected to cost $1.5 billion.
CSX also released the video below showing the girder placement.
When done, the biggest benefactor will be Metra. It will raise them in two ground level locations where slow freight traffic is normal and creates problems on their Rock Island District to Joliet and Southwest Service to Manhattan.
The Metra service from Manhattan (former Wabash) will be able to join at the Rock Island line and stop using the NS line to CUS and terminate at LaSalle Street Station. Metra will then stop using that rickety former Pennsylvania Bridge at East Pilsen. That will leave the Heritage Corridor left into CUS from the south along with BNSF Aurora District and Amtrak.
The Rock, late in game, wanted to build a connection at Englewood to route commuter trains into Union. But they didn’t have the money. Now there’s the possibility for more trains into LaSalle. Funny how these things work out.
DANIEL — I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. LaSalle is an utter disgrace. It’s a blot on America, an embarrassment.
Normally I’m not one to deal the race card or the low-income card. In this one specific case, I will. LaSalle wouldn’t be tolerated if it served upper-income suburbs.
Several thoughts.
1. How soon will CSX install tracks and actually use the flyover?
2. When will the temporary crossing be removed? Will that enable METRA & the freight trains to move any faster or is that crossing not the MAX speed decider for the route?
3. Can CSX take full advantage of the time reductions or will the delays it has experienced just move to another location? So, can CSX expect that its operational schedule will become more reliable in CHI area?
4. What does the flyover when operational do to allowable MAX speeds for that route?
1. The flyover completion “date” is currently 3Q2027. Whether or not trains are running over it before then is anyone’s guess.
2. Presumably the 3Q2027 date includes removal of the diamonds. The real bottleneck is literally one mile east where UP/NS/BRC/Metra converge. For them one obstacle, the BOCT diamonds, is removed but the biggie remains.
3 & 4. From just a bird’s eye view once the diamonds are gone it looks like a clear board to Blue Island. Going north, however, looks a little dicey.
try this:https://www.createprogram.org/wp-content/uploads/75thCIP.pdf#page=3
Unfortunately the article gives no information as to the 75th Street Corridor as a whole.
Can anyone post info on the other construction activities or completions?
I tried Charles, but it isn’t letting me post a link. Look up up 75thcip.org and you should find a nice site that gives a run down of the entire project.