GENEVA, Ill. — Union Pacific will hold an open house meeting, offering an update on its Third Main project through the city of Geneva, on Feb. 23 at the Geneva Public Works Department, 1800 South Street. The session will be held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Work began in September on the project to add a third main line on the only remaining two-track section of the route shared by UP’s freight main west from Chicago and Metra’s UP West commuter operation, an approximately 6-mile stretch between Kress Road in West Chicago and Peck Road in Geneva. The project is expected to be completed in July 2024.
More information is available at a page on the Third Main project on the City of Geneva website, and on a blog updating project activity.
Looking at pictures, it looks like there is room for two additional tracks.
They could possibly do what the RF&P did in Virginia a number of years ago, simply build a parallel bridge adjacent, but separate from the 1883/1920 bridge
The biggest question I have (couldn’t find any details) is the question of the Fox River bridge.
It’s a two track bridge with river pylons that support a third set of rails. However….and its a big one, Chicago and Northwestern took shortcuts when they updated the original 1883 bridge to its current design in 1920. They left the original quarry stone from the 1883 bridge in place and supplemented it with reinforced buttressed concrete when the bridge was replaced. The approaches on both sides do not contain enough earth to support a third set of rails. When CNW replaced the 1883 masonry pylons in 1920, they left the approaches for another day.
This also occurs on the 1st Street overpass just west of the river. Original masonry from 1883.
Is this going to be replaced in its entirety? Rip out the entire 1883 masonry structures, add fill to support a third rail set, and install all new set of approaches on each side with new girder plates?
Guess that is why concrete and concrete trucks were created.