By LORRAINE SWANSON
Editor
The north Red Line's crumbling viaducts are at the forefront of CTA infrastructural issues. (PHOTO/TOM MANNIS)
Residents up and down the north Red and Purple Lines got their chance to speak their piece to CTA officials this week at four community open houses designed to garner public feedback for future improvements to the “work horse” of the CTA’s rail system from Addison to Linden.
The $3 million, CTA vision study is the first step toward creating a long-term renovation plan that will essentially rebuild the Red and Purple Lines, both of which are at the end of their life cycles that will make them safe and viable for another 50 to 100 years.
The CTA’s public acknowledgement of the crumbling, 80-plus-year Red Line infrastructure and outdated stations displayed on poster boards lining the perimeters of community venues in Evanston, Rogers Park, Edgewater and Uptown, came as a welcome sign to Red Line riders who’ve had the hell scared out of them watching debris fall from the deteriorating viaducts or endured the stench of mold and even worse at one of the decrepit Red Line stations.
Most residents who expected a formal presentation at the Edgewater and Uptown community open houses held respectively at Emanuel Congregation and Truman College on Tuesday and Wednesday, seemed at a loss of what was expected of them – write down their comments for what they’d like to see improved in their CTA experience, and ask questions of assorted CTA staff, which included architects, engineers, project managers and financial analysts.
Residents viewed display boards of crumbling CTA infrastructure and identified needs for improvements to the Red and Purple lines at four community open houses, including the one for Edgewater residents at Emanuel Congregation.
The North Red and Purple Line Corridor from Addison to Linden accommodates 71,000 riders each weekday, almost 30 percent of the CTA’s entire light rail ridership. The nine-mile corridor includes 71 viaducts and 21 stations. The Red Line north of Sheridan was built in the 1920s; everything south of Sheridan was built over a century ago.
Residents who attended the open houses were told that recent renovations to the Brown Line started with a similar vision study.
“We want to be able to put together what your vision is, not necessarily what ours is, which is why ther is no formal presentation,” CTA President Richard Rodriguez told residents attending the Edgewater open house.
The identified needs of the north Red Line are staggering. Infrastructural fixes include signals, track, substations, ballasts, drainage, embankments and viaducts – and that doesn’t even take into account refurbishing the north Red Line stations. Considering that such a plan may well cost over a billion dollars, making the infrastructural repairs, seems almost unrealistic, no matter how necessary, in what is increasingly evolving into a major transit disaster waiting to happen.
“It’s an ‘unfunded priority,’” a CTA official told Lake Effect News when asked how the CTA expects to pay for the darn thing.
But Rodriguez, who made a guest appearance at Tuesday’s Edgewater community open house, said that when the federal Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient, Transportation Equity Act (SAFETEA-LU) expires at the end of this year and is reauthorized by Congress in 2010, the CTA wants to have shovel-ready plans on the books when its lines up for federal funding along with seven other U.S. cities that have their own aging mass transit systems to fix.
“The only thing I want you to realize,” Rodriguez told Edgewater residents, “is how committed we are to push this over to the next phase. The Red Line … is long overdue for repairs and we are committed to doing this. This is the first stage of what needs to happen.”
CTA President Richard Rodriguez put in a guest appearance at the Edgewater open house for the CTA's Red and Purple Line Vision Study, Rep. Harry Osterman (14th District) a loud proponent for fixing the north Red Line, stands behind him.
Rodriguez said the CTA has many projects waiting in the cue, including extensions to the Orange and Yellow Lines, extending the south Red Line from 95th Street to 130th Street, and a proposed Circle Line for improved connectivity through the near west and southwest neighborhoods. These projects are eligible for the Federal Transportation Administration’s “New Starts” program, part of the SAFETEA-LU bill which funds new mass transit construction around the country, but because of its strict criteria, leaves little funding left for bringing aging mass transit systems like the CTA, into good repair.
“[The Red and Purple Lines are] as much a priority as any of the other projects we’re working on,” Rodriguez said in response to how much of priority fixing the Red and Purple Lines is in the grand scheme of the CTA’s many capital needs. “We just want to be ready for whatever happens. We want to be prepared for whatever funding becomes available and be able to say we got all these different projects in all these different types of phases. If money is not available for big shovel ready projects, we can use it for the planning phase on this one, or use it for the conceptual phase on this one.”
A major rehaul of the Red and Purple Lines is anticipated over the next ten years. A major source of funding is likely to come from the feds, with the state of Illinois and the Regional Transportation Authority also kicking in. In the meantime, Red and Purple Line riders can look forward to interim station improvements, such as new platform and station lighting, installation of security cameras, platform canopies, and stair enclosures and refurbishments.
Shoring up the line’s aging viaducts is also a hot issue. One CTA official at the Uptown community forum said the viaducts were “structurally sound,” but with their peeling paint and spalling concrete, they just looked bad.
“We’ll look at the infrastructure and stations to understand how they work together,” said Elizabeth Gallagher of the CTA. “A lot of stations sit on viaducts so you have infrastructure running through it, substations and tracks, improving the flow of traffic under the viaducts, there’s a lot of opportunities to see how one station relates to another.”
Ald. Helen Shiller (center) demonstrates her expert knowledge of mass transit issues to CTA mass transit experts at the Uptown open house at Truman College Wednesday evening, one of four community forums held by the CTA for its Red and Purple Line vision study.
Rep. Harry Osterman (14th District), one of the loudest proponents for improving the aging north Red Line, said that for the first time, local, state and federal elected officials and the CTA are all on the same page. Four North Side alderman, including Patrick O’Connor (40th), Helen Shiller (46th), Mary Ann Smith (48th) and Joe Moore (49th), along with Osterman, Sen. Heather Steans (7th District) and Greg Harris (13th District), have been meeting for “months” with CTA President Rodriguez and a congressional delegation including Congressman Jan Schakowsky (9th District) and U.S. Senator Dick Durbin.
Osterman said the Red and Purple Line vision study was not a “dog and pony show” but a concrete first step toward making major renovations to the Red and Purple Lines a reality.
“For the first time all the elected officials on the lake front have been working together … this hasn’t happened in the past,” Osterman said. “The CTA has publicly acknowledged that they need to do these repairs to the Red Line. The CTA has put its own money into the planning process and have a plan in place for [when SAFETEA-LU] is reauthorized early next year.”
Osterman was in Washington, D.C. on Thursday meeting with Durbin, who recently got $10 million in federal funding to refurbish the Loyola Red Line Station.
To date, the CTA received $241 million from the federal stimulus, the bulk of which went toward repairs on the Blue Line and the Dearborn Blue Line station. The state also passed two capital bills earlier this year; the smaller of which includes funding for interim improvements to the north Red Line stations. Bonds for the larger bill, about $20 million have not yet been sold.
Corrosion beneth the Lawrence Red Line. A CTA official declared the viaducts structurally sound, but acknowledged that they look bad. (PHOTO/TOM MANNIS)
“Quite frankly,” Osterman said, “the state’s financial situation isn’t helping with the issue of bonds, which remain an ongoing challenge and concern to the governor and his team trying to make sure that bodes get the return possible.”
Ald. Smith has also directed $1 million in public funds from the Berwyn TIF to fix up the Berwyn Red Line Station.
The final Red and Purple Line Vision Report is expected to be completed in April 2010. In the meantime, the CTA is encouraging the public to submit written comments via e-mail at NorthRedPurple@transitchicago.com. Comments may also be sent by snail mail to the attention of Jeff Wilson at CTA Headquarters, 567 W. Lake Street, Chicago, IL 60661.
In the meantime, let’s hope that the country’s current economic woes aren’ t the new “normal.”
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‘“For the first time all the elected officials on the lake front have been working together … this hasn’t happened in the past,” Osterman said.’
If this is true, I’m concerned. I’m hoping this is a misprint.
There are two mistakes in this article:
1. The entire track structure from Lawrence north to Linden in Wilmette was completed & opened in 1910. That makes the viaducts from Lawrence to Central St. in Evanston 99 years old, not 80+.
2. This isn’t light rail, it’s heavy rail. Light rail is streetcars.
I don’t believe the CTA one bit when they say it’s unsightly but structurally sound. Many of the viaducts are falling apart & have been reinforced with steel plates. The only thing that the CTA has going for it is that the viaducts were designed to carry coal & lumber freight cars from Class 1 railroads. Those cars weighed maybe 80 tons, where CTA L cars top out with a full load at maybe 30 tons. The viaducts were thus, over engineered for their current purpose, but it’s also doubtful that the concrete is is of the same quality that produced today.
The line was built on a right of way leased from the Milwaukee Rd. which had taken over the Chicago, Evanston & Milwaukee RR. which is why the CTA had some freight service using track 1 after midnight.
The coal was delivered to Lill Coal at Berwyn, where the Jewel is & the lumber to the Hines, Mears Yard, which is now the southwest corner of the Howard L yard in Evanston. Lill closed in the 70s & Mears a few years before that. I remember going to Mears as a kid with my dad to buy lumber.
And if you think the CTA viaducts are bad, check out the ones that were built for the Chicago & Northwestern along Ravenswood Ave! They’re worse! The ones in Rogers Park were built by the American Bridge Co of NY in 1907 [many still have the builder's plate on them]. It’s the ones farther south that are the worst. I suggest you walk under the one at Wrightwood Ave. You can see sky through it as you can at several others in West Lakeview.
“Ald. Smith has also directed $1 million in public funds from the Berwyn TIF to fix up the Berwyn Red Line Station.”
And there it is – the opening through which speculation can seep against Shiller deciding to drop $10M in TIF$ for Truman College’s parking garage (so much for being “green”, eh?), and the wonderment as to why a private developer gets tens of millions of TIF$ to develop a piece of lakeside property we’re constantly told was not attractive to other developers (um …)
I’m sure a portion of the $54M going into a development which has spawned a lawsuit could have been directed towards a project which is actually within the province – and should be a priority – of an alderman: public transportation.
The poor and under-privileged do need housing; but, EVERYONE needs clean and safe public transportation, don’t they?
Not everyone can afford a car.
It’s also interesting how darn near every part of Chicago can find Federal money for projects, and yet projects north of Irving and south of Loyola consistently get left in the cold.
Why is that?
Dunno.
These elected and appointed officials (none of whom, I believe, have any real public transit background, I might add) can fill the room with as much hot air as they’d like, but all I’m seeing here is failure.
Past and present (and most likely future, if the Feds can’t come to “save” us from the fact that neither the city nor the state can financially provide for themselves with the money tax payers give them).
Keep in mind: the north side red/purple lines didn’t all of a sudden start to deteriorate when the market did. This has been going on for some time.
Let me rephrase that to be more accurate: this situation has been IGNORED for quite some time.
Maybe some responsive maintenance say … 10 years or so ago, might have delayed the infrastructure entropy.
The same people proclaiming all of this wonderful, new planning for a project 10 years down the road, are the same people who allowed these lines to fall into disrepair.
Nice work.
I do find it interesting that the CTA was creative enough to cut a deal with Apple to refurbish the Clyborn stop
If only the Wilson stop had a major corporation opening a store near-by with whom the CTA might cut a similar deal.
*cough*
Then again, who needs the Wilson stop (beyond those who constantly use it as a public urinal, that is) when there’s a spanking new parking garage across the street and the Wilson Yard TIF has been amended to allow not for any CTA improvements, ala Smith, but for more … that’s right: parking.
Osterman was dead on, this was not a “dog and pony show”.
The ponies never showed up.
Unindicted Co-Conspirator is correct about most of the facts in his post, except for the following: The line to Evanston from Wilson opened for operation on May 16, 1908; however, it operated at ground level. The elevation project in Chicago took years. The stations that are in use were completed in 1922. There is an excellent web site devoted to the “L” that has more information about the lines, stations, accidents, fares, etc. than you ever thought possible. Check it out.
Interesting choice for rehab: I remember when the Loyola stop was refurbished, in the ’70’s and “80’s. they have elevators and escalators and it’s pretty spiffy; nothing has been done to Argyle stop; or Lawrence; it’s frightening to go to Lawrence, even during the day; Granville is good; BrynMawr is good; why on earth is there a contemplation by Osterman to fix up the Loyola stop? How about Morse? Priorities, Mr. Osterman; I knew your Mom. I know she would take the bull by the horns here and address the immediate concern to fix up Berwyn, Argyle, Thorndale, etc. Can we at least have some money to clean up those stops, and not Loyola? Thank you.