CHAMPAIGN — A $2 million University Avenue improvement project in downtown Champaign has morphed into an urban archaeology dig, as construction crews have unearthed remnants of the city's interurban railroad and streetcar system.

"This is old so you never know what you're going to get into," said Richard Taylor of Champaign, a resident engineer with Clark Dietz Inc., the engineering firm overseeing the infrastructure improvement project on University Avenue between Randolph and Chestnut streets.

Construction workers so far have recovered railroad ties, plates and spikes that are probably more than 100 years old, plus paving bricks from the days before downtown streets were made of concrete and asphalt.

"We've had a little bit of everything out here," Taylor said.

A half-dozen wooden ties were found Tuesday at the southeast corner of Neil Street and University Avenue. Other historical relics have been found at Market and Walnut streets.

H. George Friedman, a retired professor at the University of Illinois and Champaign-Urbana's resident expert on street railways, said the ties likely date to 1907 when the Illinois Traction System extended its interurban line onto Neil Street. The Illinois Traction, an electric railroad system throughout much of downstate Illinois, was built primarily by Champaign businessman, politician and philanthropist William McKinley.

"They ran a curved track from the corner of University and Neil south to John Street for the interurban line to Decatur," he explained.

The local streetcar system also used the tracks, as did freight cars, "although they would probably have tended to run those at night," Friedman said.

The Neil Street tracks were used until 1937 when the tracks were dug up, removed and sold for scrap.

"The streetcar ended on Nov. 10, 1936, but the interurban continued to use those tracks," Friedman said. "But the city of Champaign wanted to get the interurban off the streets."

Eventually the Illinois Traction interurban line was moved to the Wabash Railway tracks that ran north of downtown Champaign.

"The Traction simply had to get off the city streets," said John Deyoe, a Champaign resident since 1947, who lives at the Inman Place senior home in downtown Champaign. "It was a handicap to get this line through a town that had grown so rapidly. Negotiating the traffic and those sharp curves and the things like that was a headache."

Friedman said the city obtained a federal grant to remove the rails from the street.

"The streetcar company which owned the rails simply gave them to the city because the streetcar company would have had the financial responsibility to get them out of the street. Instead the city qualified for a WPA (Works Progress Administration) grant," he said. "The company turned the title over to the city, and the city sold the rail for their scrap value for their share of the grant. It was a good deal all around."

Deyoe said he was delighted to see uncovered remnants of downtown Champaign history.

"I take frequent walks around the construction areas and I notice these things," said Deyoe, a railroad fan who taught at Jefferson Middle School in Champaign for 34 years.

"I can remember as a kid being fascinated with the Illinois Traction. At that point, they were probably running three trains a day with two cars each. By the '50s they dwindled down to a single car. And then they were abandoned in '55," he said. "It's part of the history of Champaign. Going back, it was quite the way to travel."

Deyoe didn't ride the Illinois Traction on its last day in Champaign; he photographed it.

"It was a rainy day and my picture turned out awfully fuzzy and foggy, unfortunately," he said. "I had staked out a place by Kaufman Lake. I wanted to capture the bridge out there as the car rounded the curve. I had everything staked out perfectly and then it just opened up with rain and fog and everything. It was just a sad day."

T.J. Blakeman, a city of Champaign planner who is fast becoming an expert on local history despite his mere 30 years, was digging through the construction site at University and Neil on Wednesday morning when he found a steel plate and railroad tie. He plans to donate it to the Champaign County Historical Museum, he said.

"I love this stuff. It's fun when we're able to uncover these hidden artifacts from the city's past," said Blakeman, whose city hall office overlooks University Avenue. "I'm going to be on the lookout for things out there all summer."