{"id":526597,"date":"2018-04-05T19:25:31","date_gmt":"2018-04-05T19:25:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/?p=526597"},"modified":"2020-10-25T11:22:06","modified_gmt":"2020-10-25T11:22:06","slug":"building-a-new-chicago-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/reportage\/building-a-new-chicago-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Building a new Chicago"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"chicago-green-infrastrutture\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Every\n day in Chicago a new light goes on. Last summer the City Council, \nsupported by the Chicago Department of Transportation and the Chicago \nInfrastructure Trust (a non-profit agency set up by the city) started a \nradical lighting renovation plan in order to reduce energy consumption. Over\n the next four years 85% of America\u2019s third-largest city\u2019s public \nlighting will be replaced, or 270,000 lamps, at a cost of $160 million.  <\/strong>
\nThe plan speaks volumes about a city that historically has been a \nreference point for the US business community and that today wants to \nstart shining again through a series of new  infrastructure investments.\n The project\u2019s biggest sponsor is Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who decided to \nlaunch a series of billion-dollar infrastructure development programs to\n create jobs. Six years ago Emanuel unveiled the \u201cBuilding a New Chicago\u201d plan,<\/strong>\n which his office says created 60,000 new jobs. Now the mayor is \ndoubling down with a new promise last year to undertake more works \nprojects to create 40,000 more jobs. The projects range from transport \nto energy, from water mains to logistics, to give a new and more modern \nface to one of the most iconic cities in the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A high speed train for the airport<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To help achieve the infrastructure plan, in April 2012 the mayor and \nthe City Council set up the Chicago Infrastructure Trust, an agency \ntasked with helping the municipal government in finding financing for \nthe projects.
\nThe Agency\u2019s latest undertaking was to launch a request for \nqualifications in November for companies interested in designing, \nbuilding, financing, managing and maintaining the O\u2019Hare Express, a high\n speed rail link that should connect downtown Chicago to O\u2019Hare \nInternational Airport, the nation\u2019s third busiest, cutting transport \ntime by 50% to 20 minutes.<\/strong>
\n\u00abExpress service to and from O\u2019Hare will give Chicagoans and visitors to\n our great city more options, faster travel times, and build on \nChicago\u2019s competitive advantage as a global hub of tourism, \ntransportation and trade\u00bb, said Mayor Emanuel on the Chicago \nInfrastructure Trust\u2019s website.
\nThere is no precise cost estimate yet, but the project should be \ncompletely financed by private investors who should receive the income \nfrom ticket sales and advertising in exchange. A good deal all around, \naccording to the Agency\u2019s estimates, which is forecasting an \nincrease of  daily passenger traffic between the airport and the Chicago\n Central Business District from a current 20,000 to 35,000 by 2045.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump and the new projects<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Chicago\u2019s vitality and importance as a business center did not pass \nunnoticed by President Donald Trump, who included two projects in the \ncity on his infrastructure priority list. The first is a renovation\n of 92-year-old landmark Union Station, with a $1 billion budget that \nmay be funded by a loan from the federal government in Washington DC. <\/strong>Apart\n from being a strategic transportation hub handling 300 trains and \n120,000 passengers on a typical working day, the renovation could \ndirectly create 1,000 new jobs, according to the City Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"201801-chicago_eng\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The second project is the modernization of the North Side \npublic transport lines run by the city\u2019s transport agency Chicago \nTransit Authority (CTA), which will cost $2.1 billion, more than double \nthe previous renovation and create 2,100 direct new jobs.<\/strong> This \nis also a strategic project for the city, because it involves the tracks\n used by three subway lines: th e Red, Purple and Brown. These are \nhigh-traffic lines, carrying an average of about 200,000 passengers on a\n weekday in 2016, according to CTA figures. The track renovation will \nmake the trains run faster and more efficiently, therefore cutting \njourney times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Renewing the city\u2019s water treatment system<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Water, for a city like Chicago, is a precious resource, but \none-fourth of its pipeline system is nearly 100 years old, and plagued \nby leaks and breakdowns. That\u2019s why Chicago is updating its water \ninfrastructure as well as its public transport. The city is \ncurrently substituting 1,450 kilometres of water pipes and 1,080 \nkilometres of sewer lines piece by piece so that it can completely \nreplace the current network by 2054.<\/strong> It\u2019s an impressive project\n because it reduces waste to zero, protects the city from river floods \nand guarantees efficient management of both drinking water and waste \nwater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investing big to think big<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Chicago is aiming to become a city of the 21st century, says Emanuel, and it is willing to invest large sums to do it. In\n recent years the mayor has overseen investments of $5 billion in the \nCTA as ridership hits record levels, $4.8 billion on its water \ninfrastructure and $2.5 billion in school facilities. <\/strong>Moreover,\n investments totaling $10 billion are under way at its two airports, \nO\u2019Hare and Midway. The figures were announced recently in an interview \nthat Emanuel gave to the Siemens magazine.
\n\u00abIf we are offering more bus services or train services, you can spend \nmore time with your kids before they go to school\u00bb, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every day in Chicago a new light goes on. Last summer the City Council, supported by the Chicago Department of Transportation and the Chicago Infrastructure Trust (a non-profit agency set up by the city) started a radical lighting renovation plan in order to reduce energy consumption. Over the next four years 85% of America\u2019s third-largest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":135752,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[19004,19002,19013,19005,12216],"yst_prominent_words":[5929,377,5934,811,5931,17065,13192,5945,1929,11468,13028,2026,2037,3858],"class_list":["post-526597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reportage","tag-development-and-growth","tag-new-challenges","tag-north-and-south-america","tag-transports","tag-water"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526597"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":542352,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526597\/revisions\/542352"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526597"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=526597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}