By Jim Leach
Photo via blackswanbooks.com
If you think railroad relocation has taken a long time, think about this – it was first proposed nearly 100 years ago.
Springfield in the 1920s was not a showplace. The air was filled with coal smoke, the rail crossings were a nuisance and hazard for drivers and pedestrians, the drinking water would not pass modern standards for sanitation. City officials commissioned a Chicago city planner, Myron West, to develop a plan for the future.
West delivered his vision to the city in May of 1923, and in 1924 it was adopted as the first official city plan. It was a document well ahead of its time. It took more than a decade to realize the West Plan’s vision of a manmade lake for drinking water, what became Lake Springfield. It envisioned turning Capitol Avenue into a landscaped parkway, a project that didn’t get started until the 21
Jim Moll may not be the smartest man in Springfield, but the Hanson Professional Services engineer sounded like it during a public meeting held last week to discuss progress on a rail line under construction along 10th Street. The new line will replace tracks along Third Street. Moll s been in charge of the $353 million project for more than a decade, and he says it s on time and on budget. The feds gave the green light in 2012 and have paid millions of dollars since then to make it happen – there remains a $60 million gap, Moll says, but he s confident that the money will come. He seems to know every detail, from construction costs to whether charging stations for electric vehicles will be included in a planned transportation center adjacent to the Sangamon County courthouse on Ninth Street.