Illinois received two grants totaling $113 million in March through the United States Department of Transportation’s Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program. Both make strides toward reconnecting the West Side around I-290.
A $111 million-grant will be used to rebuild part of the Forest Park branch of the CTA Blue Line.
The other $2 million-grant will be used to address the needs of neighborhoods surrounding I-290. This planning grant requires Chicago to discuss with community members to develop a plan for how to use the money.
“This is good progress, but the entire project is over $6 billion,” said John Greuling, deputy director of the I-290 Blue Line Coalition, a nonprofit founded in 2022 to advocate for funding for 13 miles of multimodal transportation, including the Eisenhower Expressway and CTA Blue Line.
“We’re going to need a lot of help from the [federal government] moving forward,” he added about the $2 million grant, which will address the separation of communities caused by I-290’s original construction.
While the Forest Park branch of the CTA Blue Line has seen routine maintenance since much of it was constructed in 1958, a multi-year effort to rebuild a stretch of the track started last summer. This included rebuilding nearly three miles of track between the LaSalle Street Station and Illinois Medical District. Reconstruction of the Racine station followed so that the stop meets accessibility guidelines, and the station will reopen by the end of the year.
The $111 million grant announced last month will fund work to begin in 2027 and focus on the section of the track in East and West Garfield Park.
The Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program started through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which President Biden signed in November 2021 to authorize up to $108 billion to improve the nation’s public transportation, including aspects of safety, modernization, climate impact and equity. The law marks the largest federal public transportation investment in the history of the U.S.
The pilot program aims to fund $1 billion in projects, from its inception through the next two years or so. It’s the first federal program devoted to reconnecting communities by amending transportation infrastructure that has historically restricted neighborhoods from mobility and economic development.
In 1949, construction started on the Congress Expressway, which was renamed the Eisenhower Expressway in 1964. The Near West Side was the first to be cleared for the highway’s path, and Garfield Park and Austin followed. The neighborhoods were partitioned with construction, affecting the routines of daily life.
Chicago’s stretch of I-290 was complete by 1956, and construction moved to the suburbs, into Oak Park. In Forest Park, about 3,500 graves were moved from Concordia Cemetery and Forest Home Cemetery so that the expressway could run through them.
“Historically, Chicago’s West Side has been separated by the imposing physical barriers of I-290, which not only divides neighborhoods, but stifles economic growth and social cohesion,” said U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin in a statement. “By prioritizing investments in infrastructure that reconnects rather than divides, we are laying the foundation for a brighter future where every resident of the West Side can thrive.”
The expressway’s construction also may have contributed to the racial makeup of Chicago’s West Side. From the start of construction to the time I-290 was completed in 1961, neighborhoods surrounding the Eisenhower increased from around 18% to 32% Black, then 64% by 1970. This infrastructure partition, along with other factors impacting white flight from Chicago, affects these communities at higher rates.
“As a strong proponent of modernizing our state’s transportation infrastructure, I also believe that progress shouldn’t come at the expense of working communities’ livelihoods, businesses, and physical health,” said U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth in a statement. “I’m glad to help Senator Durbin announce this funding to help restore resources and community connectivity on the West Side of Chicago.”
