On the afternoon of April 19, 2003, an 11-year-old Lake Forest boy was struck by a northbound Canadian Pacific train on the tracks at the western train station in Lake Forest, according to Tribune reports. Since then, the grade-level crossing intersection at 911 Telegraph Rd. has been the site of five other deaths, according to the Lake Forest police. Two of those deaths were determined to be suicides.
Since 2008 or 2009 the city has talked about constructing a pedestrian underpass or overpass at the western station, said City Manager Robert Kiely. In 2012 the city awarded a contract for preliminary design.
The proposed underpass would be built about 100 to 150 feet south of the depot, said Robert Ells, superintendent of engineering for the city. It would run from the east edge of the station parking lot, under the tracks and exit near Gloucester Crossing.
But the challenge for the city has been finding the money to pay for such a project. Ells estimates the cost at about $13 million total. So far the state of Illinois has pledged $880,000 toward construction, Ells said.
“That’s it,” Ells said. “A little bit short of the $13 million.”
Enter the Lake County Council of Mayors. The Council distributes federal surface transportation project funds. Almost since its formation, the council has focused on funding only road projects said Bruce Christensen, planning liaison for the LCCM. The council supplies 70 percent of the funding for construction of chosen road projects and the local government has to raise the other 30 percent. That worked fine until the Great Recession started around 2007 and local governments found themselves with less money for infrastructure projects.
“Those communities are backing off because of the local match,” Christensen said.
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As a result, the council has found itself with a surplus of federal money.
“I told [the council] when you are carrying a hefty balance of federal funds and you want to ask for federal funds in the future, it’s difficult to make that argument,” Christensen said.
To use those funds, Christensen said he made two suggestions at a Sept. 14 meeting of the transportation committee of the Council. First, increase the LCCMl’s portion of funding from 70 up to 80 percent of chosen projects. Second, make other types of transportation project eligible for funding.
The potential underpass is not only about pedestrian safety. In July 2012, the city council adopted a resolution in support of making the station an Amtrak stop according to an article in the Tribune.
“Amtrak would really like to have a pedestrian underpass there,” Ells said.
Amtrak doesn’t stop in Lake Forest or, for that matter, anywhere between Glenview and Sturtevant, Wisc., said Marc Magliari, an Amtrak spokesman. Asked if Amtrak would look more favorably on stopping in Lake Forest if a pedestrian underpass or overpass was built, Magliari spoke about the Amtrak process for determining a train stop. That includes figuring out whether there are enough potential passengers, getting approval from both the Wisconsin and Illinois departments of transportation and making sure a stop wouldn’t interfere with trains from Metra and Canadian Pacific, which use the same tracks.
“Certainly we favor, as a railroad and operator of 14 trains a day, anything that would make it safer for pedestrians to cross the tracks,” Magliari said. “That’s above and beyond any discussion of a stop.”
As the city inches forward toward a potential funding source for the project, the Lake County Council of Mayors match is not a done deal. The full council still has to approve both the expansion of eligible projects and increasing the percentage of funds it supplies. And it has to create a method for evaluating proposed non-road projects.
Christensen said he hopes to bring all those matters in front of the full Council sometime after Jan. 1.
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