52 replies to this topic

[KevinKorell]

Chicago, IL Tribune, 4/16/14:

CTA unveils plans to rebuild Red Line stops

The CTA today said it is planning to rebuild four North Side Red Line stations from Lawrence to Bryn Mawr.

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[KevinKorell]

Chicago, IL Tribune. 4/16/14:

Red Line to get North Side overhaul, while South Siders decry wait

The CTA said Wednesday it is moving forward with a multibillion-dollar overhaul of the Red Line’s aging north branch tracks and stations, just hours after South Siders aired complaints to the agency’s board that Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s promised southern extension of the same rail line was moving too slowly.

This story

[KevinKorell]

Chicago, IL Tribune, 4/17/14:

CTA: 16 buildings need to be razed for Belmont 'L' overpass

The CTA unveiled a $320 million proposal Thursday to eliminate one of the worst bottlenecks in its system by building an elevated bypass to untangle trains on the Red, Purple and Brown lines north of Belmont Avenue.

This is the story.

[KevinKorell]

Chicago, IL Tribune, 4/25/14:

CTA releases list of buildings needed to be razed for Belmont overpass

The CTA has released the list of nearly 20 buildings in the Lakeview neighborhood it says must be torn down as part of a $320 million project to build an elevated bypass and untangle trains on the Red, Purple and Brown lines.

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[KevinKorell]

Chicago, IL Tribune column, 5/18/14:

Tribune architecture critic: CTA flyover proposal misguided, unnecessary

A city is a machine for moving people and goods. It's also a habitat where human beings build their nests and neighborhoods. These traits often conflict, most famously in the 1950s when the uber-activist, Jane Jacobs, stopped the uber-planner, Robert Moses, from ramming a highway through Manhattan's Washington Square Park.

Jacobs has successors in Chicago. They're sure to be at a federally mandated public hearing Thursday about the CTA's misguided plan to build an elevated bypass to unclog a railroad bottleneck that slows Red, Brown and Purple Line trains.

Read column

[KevinKorell]

Opinion in Chicago, IL Tribune, 5/22/14:

CTA flyover good for employers

The announcement by the CTA last month about plans to rebuild the Clark Junction where the Brown, Purple, and Red Line tracks cross is big news to employers.

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[KevinKorell]

Chicago, IL Tribune, 11/4/14:

Lakeview-area residents vote: CTA hasn't 'sufficiently justified' Belmont flyover

The CTA has not "sufficiently justified" the need for a controversial $320 million flyover near the Belmont station to reduce train traffic at the busy stop, Chicago voters decided Tuesday at the ballot box. The planned flyover would reconfigure the tracks so Brown Line trains would use an elevated ramp over tracks used by Red and Purple Line trains near the Belmont stop.

This story

[CNJRoss]

Curbed Chicago, 11/5:

CTA 'Roller Coaster' Flyover Doesn't Fly With Lakeview Voters

Yesterday, voters in the 20th, 36th and 38th precincts of the 44th Ward had a chance to make their voices heard with a non-binding referendum asking if the CTA has justified the proposed Red-Purple Bypass project. The CTA has indicated that the proposed elevated bypass at the Red, Brown and Purple line switchover between the Belmont and Addison stops — the Clark Junction, basically the Hillside Strangler of North Side public transit — would supposedly provide a huge public benefit in the form of faster, smoother rides, however the results are in, and 72% of voters have said no.

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[CNJRoss]

Chicago Sun-Times, 2/11:

 

Brown Line bypass at Belmont is 'absolutely necessary,' CTA chief says

A Brown Line train approaches the Belmont station. The CTA wants to construct a "flyover" to separate Brown Line tracks north of the station to alleviate a bottleneck that occurs when Brown Line trains must cross Red and Purple line tracks. | Alex Wroblewski/Sun-Times

 

A CTA Belmont flyover that would separate the Brown Line from the Red and Purple Lines is “absolutely necessary” if the CTA does not want to “kill the golden goose” of Red Line ridership, CTA President Forrest Claypool said Wednesday.

 

After a monthly CTA board meeting, Claypool told reporters the CTA is not stepping back from its commitment to the controversial flyover.

 

“We believe a flyover is absolutely necessary,” he said.

 

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[CNJRoss]

WBBM (CBS) Chicago, 4/29/15:

CTA To Close 2 North Side Stations For Red/Purple Line Renovations

 

CHICAGO (STMW) — The CTA’s ambitious $1.7 billion Red and Purple Modernization project will be completed in two phases over four years, starting with the closure of the Lawrence and Berwyn stations for 18 months beginning in 2017.

 

The CTA announced details of the plan on Wednesday as the agency released its environmental review documents, which are required to apply for federal funding, design a project and gain public feedback.

 

The project, announced last spring, will rebuild four stations from Lawrence to Bryn Mawr, as well as a mile of track infrastructure, bridges and viaducts between them on the Red and Purple Lines. The project also involves a bypass or “flyover,” separating the northbound Brown Line from the Red and Purple lines on a new elevated track just north of Belmont. Details on the bypass are pending an environmental assessment, which should be released later this spring.

 

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