Project design is 100% complete.  Right of way acquistion is 100% complete.  The project is awaiting legal approvals from the Federal Economic Development Agency prior to bidding.

The Danville Public Works Committee concurred with recommendations to close the Fairchild Subway permanently due to continued movements of the walls and concern for public safety.  Below, are some FAQ's:  

Why can the railroads still run?  The subway is made up of walls (City responsibility) and two tunnels (Railroad bridges).  The tunnels are solid concrete arches that are in good shape capable of supporting the rail traffic.  The walls are the only portions causing problems that are of concern.
It's lasted this long, why not another year?  The types of movements in the walls have changed in the last 5 years indicating that something new is going on.  These concrete walls will show signs of distress via cracking and bent reinforcement on their tension sides.  The south wall tension side is visible from the roadway, but the north walls may have a tension face on the opposite side not visible for inspection.  Because the north walls seem to have transferred tension from the roadway side to the soil side, we are no longer comfortable with the stability of the structure.
Why can't you put in more bracing?  We installed steel upper struts in 2006 in locations where the concrete struts needed strengthening.  The area with significant wall movement doesn't have a strut issue, in fact the strut may be allowing the north wall to push south against the south wall.  If we put in lower bracing, the walls will try to bend around that bracing which would be OK if there were steel reinforcement in the back of the walls.  Without the reinforcement, though, the walls would crack and may fail in tension.
What is the City doing?  We are continuing with engineering the replacement of the subway with an overpass.  The schedule is to be ready to bid the project in February or March of 2012 and start construction in the summer of 2012.