CSX picks consultant team for CREATE right-of-way services

The Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program (CREATE) partners announced this week that CSX has selected Mathewson Right of Way Co. to provide right-of-way acquisition services for two projects that are part of the 75th Street Corridor improvement project.

Mathewson will provide services for a portion of the Forest Hill Flyover project and the 71st Street grade separation project, CREATE officials said in a press release.

The company is expected to provide licensed land surveying expertise, title work, appraisals, preparation of plats and legal descriptions, negotiations, settlements and project management services starting in the second quarter.

The Mathewson team includes two disadvantaged business enterprise firms: American Surveying & Engineering and 1st AEROW Valuation Group.

The Forest Hill Flyover involves construction of a new CSX north-south rail flyover structure to eliminate conflicts between train movements at Forest Hill Junction. The other project calls for building a grade separation involving a 71st Street crossing and a CSX line.

Chicago is the No. 1 chokepoint in the U.S. rail network, with about 760 passenger and 500 freight trains traversing the large metropolitan area each day.

Estimated to cost $4.4 billion, the CREATE program involves 70 rail and road improvement projects in the Chicagoland area, 29 of which had been completed through November. A public-private partnership among more than a dozen railroads and government agencies is pursuing the projects, which range from new tracks to grade separations to highway bridges to signal upgrades.

To learn more about the 75th Street Corridor improvement project, read this article in Progressive Railroading's December 2018 issue.