Rahm Announces $7 Billion Infrastructure Plan
By Chuck Sudo in News on Mar 29, 2012 4:45PM
Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced a $7 billion plan to improve the city's infrastructure this morning. The plan, called Building a New Chicago, will touch on every aspect of the city's infrastructure and is expected to create 30,000 jobs over the three year plan. Emanuel, who has touted the city's infrastructure as a priority since taking office, said in a press release.
“Whether it is renewing our parks or repairing our pipes, repaving our roads or rebuilding our rails, retrofitting our buildings or revitalizing our bridges, we must restore Chicago’s core. Our plans are comprehensive because our needs are comprehensive -- because no city in America relies on its infrastructure more than Chicago. While our infrastructure challenges are not unique, our resolve and determination to see them through is. I look forward to rebuilding our city’s infrastructure so we may continue to lead in the 21st century.”
The plan calls for:
- Renovation, repair, or rebuilding of more than 100 CTA stations
- The creation of the first 16 miles of Bus Rapid Transit Route on Jeffrey Boulevard, with future routes being developed for the Central Loop.
- A $1.4 billion investment in O’Hare airport over the next three years, creating 5,900 jobs, including opening two new runways by 2015.
- A five-year, $290 million capital plan for the City’s parks that will include the acquisition of 180 new acres of parklands, and the building of 20 new playgrounds and 12 new parks.
- The 2014 completion of the Bloomingdale trail.
- The completion of two new boathouses this year on the Chicago River, with two new boathouses next year.
- The replacement of 900 miles of century-old water pipe, the repair of 750 miles of sewer line, and the reconstruction of 160,000 catch-basins.
- The reform of the Aldermanic Menu, and tax increment financing, so that these tools better match the city’s infrastructure needs.
- A $660 million investment in Chicago Public Schools, and a $479 million investment in the City Colleges of Chicago, to create modern educational environments that will propel our students into the jobs of tomorrow.
- “Retrofit Chicago,” a $225 million dollar effort to retrofit City buildings, reducing their energy consumption by 25 percent and creating 900 jobs in the next three years, the first project funded by the Chicago Infrastructure Trust.
At an appearance at the Chicagoland Laborers’ Training and Apprentice Center in Austin this morning promoting the announcement, Emanuel urged airlines at O'Hare feeling the pinch of rising fuel costs to negotiate a fourth new runway a year early. Adding a fourth runway, Emanuel said, would reduce delays at O'Hare by 80 percent and increase the airport's capacity by 300,000 passengers by 2015.
“These infrastructure investments mean that, in three years, O’Hare’s capacity will grow by the size of Midway’s total capacity. That is the same as building a third major airport for Chicago but, in my view, far more cost-effective and strategic.”