Quote:
Originally Posted by OhioGuy
This area is growing so rapidly I would love to have those surface rail Metra tracks put in a trench and a half mile linear park constructed above, stretching from Racine to Halsted, lined with a mix of condos, apartments, and office buildings on both the north & south sides of the park. It just seems likely to become a very pedestrian heavy area and surface heavy rail tracks aren’t an ideal mix. Could the city, in exchange for approving developments lining the rail corridor, push developers to contribute funding for future construction of a rail trench and park development above? Maybe something similar to the park Boston developed downtown after the big dig moved the interstate underground. Park space is rather limited in this neighborhood anyway.
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Honestly it would be cheaper to build an elevated viaduct with four tracks like Toronto is
planning. There are plenty of design tricks to make the viaduct into a good neighbor, and the space below could be enclosed and rented to shops/retail, or left open for plazas.
Usually this would be a non-starter, but in this case, the rail line is already there and the area has very few residents to complain. (There’s also the existing viaduct on UP-W, which everyone seems to be okay with)