News & Reviews News Wire HDR gets design contract for UP-led portion of CREATE 80th Street project

HDR gets design contract for UP-led portion of CREATE 80th Street project

By Trains Staff | September 29, 2022

| Last updated on February 16, 2024

Line relocation is part of larger 75th Street Corridor program

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Map showing tangle of rail junctions in south Chicago
The full scope of the 75th Street Corridor project. The 80th Street Junction Realignment is at right center. CREATE

CHICAGO — Union Pacific has selected engineering firm HDR to provide final track design and engineering work for the UP-led portion of the 80th Street Junction Replacement project, part of the CREATE program’s larger 75th Street Corridor Improvement Project.

HRD will produce design for relocation of two Union Pacific mainline tracks between 80th Street and CP Oakdale, along with a connector track and seven new bridges. This is part of the EW2 portion of the 75th Street project, which advances four separate projects as a single project because of their logistical and environmental similarities.

The project is in the Ashburn, Auburn Greshman, Englewood, and West Chatham neighborhoods on Chicago’s South Side, and addresses conflicts between the Belt Railway of Chicago, UP, CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern, and Metra.

“Union Pacific is pleased to take this next step in moving forward our piece of this critical infrastructure project, which will alleviate rail congestion and improve traffic flow for Chicago,” Liisa Lawson Stark, vice president of Public Affairs for Union Pacific, said in a press release. “We are also pleased that HDR will be leveraging the expertise and experience of three local firms to assist with the work.”

Those local firms, included under the 25% Disadvantaged Business Enterprise goal for the contract, are DB Sterlin Consultants Inc, engineering and surveying; Atlas Engineering Group, roadway design and traffic maintenance; and Wang Engineering, geotechnical services.

HDR’s selection was announced a day after the Belt Railway of Chicago called for a request for proposals for signal design for the project [see “Belt Railway seeks signal-design proposals …,” Trains News Wire, Sept. 29, 2022].

More information on the CREATE (Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency) Program, a series of 70 Chicago-area projects, is available at the program website.

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