A $40 million project to relieve traffic congestion in Franklin Park reached a milepost Wednesday so important that Mayor Dan Pritchett fired up his 1929 Model A Ford pickup and drove past it.
The project involves construction of an underpass under two sets of railroad tracks on Grand Avenue east of 25th Avenue that for years has been classified as one of the worst sources of train-related traffic delays in the Chicago area.
That unfortunate status, however, came to a partial end Wednesday with the opening of two traffic lanes of the underpass that take cars and trucks under one set of tracks. This means–for the first time in Franklin Park’s history–trains on those tracks can take as long as they want to cross Grand. They can even park there all day without stopping street traffic on Grand.
Two more traffic lanes are expected to be added to the underpass by November. And rerouting of the other set of railroad tracks onto the steel span over the underpass is scheduled for completion by the end of the year.
Yet the opening of the two lanes, one for eastbound, one for westbound traffic, was a reason for the town to celebrate.
“We’re really excited,” Pritchett said. “We had a big community party on the underpass last week.”
And Pritchett’s Model A pickup was the first car to drive the underpass Wednesday.
The underpass goes under the Canadian National tracks. A few hundred feet east are Indiana Harbor Belt tracks, which will be relocated to the bridge later this year.
A study by the Illinois Commerce Commission released in 2002 ranked the two sets of tracks combined as the sixth-worst source of train-related traffic delays in the Chicago area.
Bids for construction of the project were received in 2004, and construction began last year. The four lanes of Grand roughly between 17th and 25th Avenues have been reduced to two lanes as work proceeds.
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jsjostrom@tribune.com
