According to the government, 70,000 bridges in the U.S. – 1 out of every 9 – are structurally unsafe.

Here’s a fun solution in Pittsburgh. Build a structure to catch the debris!Next time you drive under a CTA overpass anywhere in Chicago, look up. Rotting beams, cracked stone and cement, rusty supports. Feel safe?

Want to increase Core Capacity, make rides safer on the CTA? Spend money on renewing CTA infrastructure everywhere. Don’t waste $$$ on a Flyover which will quickly become part of the infrastructure you don’t maintain.

The CTA tacked the Belmont Flyover onto their otherwise sane Core Capacity proposal to the federal government in order to prove a required “10-20%” increase in core capacity.

But, they lied by presenting the Flyover as the fix. The CTA said the delay caused when a northbound Brown Line train crosses the Red and Purple Line tracks at Belmont – in reality 20-30 seconds  – is an ‘up to 4 minute’ delay. Then, they provided misleading illustrations to downplay the destructive effect of the Flyover on Lakeview.

All to satisfy the Fed’s core capacity increase requirement.

They didn’t need to lie. The RPM project easily stands alone without the tacked-on Flyover. Fixing the tracks, the underpasses, the shaky curves will increase core capacity, make it possible to deliver more commuters more quickly to work each day. No made-up ‘signature project’ solution needed to sell this plan.

And no unnecessary Flyover to build, then immediately begin to neglect.