Amtrak’s plan for a new South Side rail maintenance facility is set to meet the public Thursday night, with Chicago White Sox minority owner Justin Ishbia expected to be there as residents continue weighing what the project could mean for their neighborhood.
The proposal calls for a 138,000-square-foot building on a corridor that stretches about two miles, from just north of Cermak Road down to 38th Street. The route runs past Rate Field and several homes. Tracks already cut through the area, but the building itself would be new - and it would operate around the clock.
Amtrak has previously described the facility as a four-story, five-track building on a 47-acre site just west of Rate Field, sandwiched between two White Sox parking lots. The project would replace the railroad’s current maintenance facility near 14th and Canal streets in the South Loop.
That South Loop property is where the White Sox angle comes into play. Ishbia is a shareholder in Canal Edge, the company under contract to buy the land Amtrak would leave behind. He is considering a new White Sox ballpark there, along the river near the Chicago Fire’s stadium.
For neighbors near the proposed rail site, the concern is that they could end up with a nonstop industrial operation in their backyard while also seeing the ballclub potentially move on from Rate Field as part of the same deal.
The Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, which owns Rate Field, heard plenty about those concerns Wednesday. Board members listened to public comment on both the possible stadium plan and the impact the Amtrak project could have on the surrounding community. The White Sox lease at Rate Field is scheduled to expire in 2029.
The questions have also reached Washington. U.S.
Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth have pushed Amtrak and the Federal Railroad Administration for more information on how the facility would function and what it would mean for noise, safety and traffic, CBS News Chicago reported earlier this month.
There is support for the move, too. The Chicago Federation of Labor, which represents thousands of transportation workers, has backed the plan in a letter. The group said Amtrak’s current Chicago maintenance sites are “aging, undersized, and fragmented,” and argued that a consolidated facility would make the work “safer, more modern and more effective.”
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