Design and Construction Report staff writer
CSX recently marked a major milestone in Chicago’s rail infrastructure update through the CREATE program with the placement of the final girder on the CREATE P3 75th Street rail flyover project. This clears the way for the transition to track work on the project and marks a key step toward improving the flow of freight and passenger trains through one of the country’s busiest rail hubs.
“The P3 project is important for Chicago’s rail infrastructure because it is going to clear congestion between the freight and passenger rail networks,” said Bret Guarino, CSX project manager, design and construction. “And once this project is complete, it’ll be a bridge over that intersection and smooth sailing for the trains.”
As the lead railroad on the P3 project, CSX managed both design and construction, guiding the development from a concept on paper to a fully realized structure.
The flyover is designed to address a long-standing bottleneck, where 30 SouthWest Service Metra trains and 35 freight trains currently intersect daily on the Western Avenue Corridor. Once complete, the flyover will separate freight and passenger traffic, reducing congestion and delays at a critical intersection on the network.
“The placement of the final girder is really a way to recognize all of the collaborative efforts here on the site,” Guarino said. “So, everyone who has had a day-to-day boots on the ground impact, this really is the culmination of a lot of their work.
“We couldn’t do it without the men and women who have worked really hard to get to this point.”
