CREATE Breaks Ground on 71st Street–CSX Grade Separation on Chicago’s South Side

Published: July 31, 2026

Chicago South Side rail corridor representing CREATE grade separation work

GS19 will separate 71st Street from the CSX line at the Forest Hill Flyover complex. CREATE photo.

Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency (CREATE) program partners broke ground July 28 on the 71st Street and CSX grade separation (GS19)—a South Side project that will eliminate an at-grade conflict by carrying the CSX line above a lowered 71st Street at the Forest Hill Flyover complex.

According to CREATE and industry reports covering the groundbreaking, the crossing sits on the Western Avenue Corridor, where about 30 Metra SouthWest Service trains and roughly 35 freight trains operate daily. Replacing the grade crossing is intended to cut neighborhood traffic delay, remove vehicle–train collision risk at the street, and ease freight/passenger friction on one of Chicago’s busiest shared corridors.

GS19 is one of four projects in the 75th Street Corridor Improvement Project (75th Street CIP), described as the most complex piece of the larger CREATE program. It is schedule-linked to the Forest Hill Flyover (P3), completed in November 2025; GS19 completion is expected in late 2027.

Funding for the paired P3 and GS19 work is estimated at about $380 million, anchored by a $132 million federal INFRA grant awarded in 2018 plus more than $260 million in state, local, and private railroad money. CREATE remains a public-private partnership of USDOT, Illinois, the City of Chicago, Cook County, Metra, Amtrak, the AAR, and the major Chicago-area freight railroads (including BNSF, CN, CPKC, CSX, NS, UP, Belt Railway of Chicago, and Indiana Harbor Belt). Officials report 36 of 70 planned CREATE projects completed to date.

For freight and passenger operators, Chicago still is the national network’s bottleneck capital. Grade separations and flyovers do not make headlines like Class I earnings or main-line steam, but they are the projects that actually move dwell times and crossing safety on the South Side. GS19’s groundbreaking is another concrete step in a multi-decade program that has always promised more fluid Chicago—and is slowly delivering it, project by project.

Sources: Progressive Railroading, “CREATE partners break ground on 71st Street grade separation,” July 30, 2026; CREATE program project materials.

Facebook X Pinterest Tumblr Reddit WhatsApp Messenger

CREATE Breaks Ground on 71st Street–CSX Grade Separation on Chicago’s South Side

Subscribe To American Rails!