Chicago Freight Report Warns of Gridlock Threat

he Chicago region needs to spend $4.5 billion over the next 25 years to avoid a gridlock of freight traffic, which is expected to double in the next two decades, said a nonprofit organization comprising transportation and land-use planners, ex-government and corporate officials.

In a late December report, Chicago Metropolis 2020 called for $1.5 billion in rail-line improvements and $3 billion in arterial road upgrades. The group said officials of city and state governments were involved in the study.

The report was the first comprehensive freight-handling plan for Chicago to examine the connection between land use and the movement of goods by rail and truck and how they affect the region’s economic development, the group said.

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