Transit Planning Study, Chicago Central Area (1968)
These proposals and the growing demand for improved public transportation service in the Central Business District led to the Transit Planning Study Chicago Central Area, which began in 1965 and financed through interest-free funds advanced by the Communities Facilities Administration, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (USHUD).
The study was conducted by the City of Chicago, the Chicago Transit Authority, and other public agencies to examine the rapid transit system in downtown Chicago, and develop a plan to maximize the contributions that effective public transportation could make toward the City's economic health. The main objectives were to produce a definitive plan to improve distribution of rapid transit and commuter railroad passengers in the Central Area, to permit removal of the 'L' structures in the Loop, and to extend the rapid transit system to sectors of downtown Chicago not presently served — thereby assuring that people working and visiting the Central Area could move about faster, easier, and in a more pleasant environment.
Earlier proposals for transit facilities in the Chicago Central Area were reviewed, new plans were prepared and analyzed, and a recommended Central Area Transit Plan was developed. Loop area development potential was evaluated. Traffic projections were made. Consideration was given to architectural and environmental factors, operational requirements, and potential methods of financing the system. In April 1968 the study had culminated into an exhaustive three volume report which recommended the construction of a fifteen-mile (24 km) subway system to replace the old elevated lines in downtown Chicago, naming it the Chicago Central Area Transit Project or CCATP.
The system proposed as a result of the 1968 Transit Planning Study consisted of two major transit facilities:
- 1.) An east-west, high-level "shuttle" or "distributor" subway extending from the University of Illinois at Chicago via Monroe Street to two branches serving, respectively, the intensely developing area north of Randolph Street and along and east of Michigan Avenue, and lakefront activities, including McCormick Place and developing areas to the southeast; and
- 2.) A conventional subway following a loop pattern under Franklin, Randolph and Van Buren Streets and Wabash Avenue, crossing under the State and Dearborn Street subways. Improved subway connections to the Evanston-Ravenswood and Lake Street Elevated lines, and a connection to the Dan Ryan rapid transit route, and all-weather passageways within the Central Area were included. Implementation of the plan would permit removal of the Union Loop Elevated structures.
Read more about this topic: Chicago Central Area Transit Plan
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