Is the Ravenswood station being built to the north of Lawrence now? I thought the neighbors threw a fit and demanded it be built south of Lawrence where the old one is.

There all guilty of neglecting their tracks , switches and bridges , they cut alot of corners and don't enforce the rules as with the FRA or I should say select enforce....

Good point - the work seen in the photo is probably just for the new trackbed, not the station. But I'm curious what is the purpose of the existing platform north of Lawrence?

Yes, the station is being rebuilt south of Lawrence. Initially UP balked because it was expensive to build platforms extending over Leland, but they backed down after the neighborhood/alderman demanded changes.

It's probably for the best, since there will be two entrances and there are numerous businesses and restaurants to the south, whereas there's nothing (yet) to the north.

The full canopies on the new station are welcome, too.

As part of the ongoing study for the Eisenhower widening, IDOT is now looking at how to reconfigure the interchanges. The infamous left-exits at Austin and Harlem could be reconfigured into right-exits, while still flowing into a single intersection suspended over the highway median (this is unique as far as I know). IDOT is also looking at the SPUI design for these exits.

It looks like there's also a potential to create some small plazas around the CTA entrances, and bus lanes for dedicated queuing. This could be a substantial upgrade to the access at these stations.

http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/5843/ike1.jpg

http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/6647/ike2t.jpg

Meanwhile, Oak Parkers are protesting the highway expansion and the city is examining the possibilities of liner buildings, especially at Oak Park Ave.

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/5821/ike3.jpg

Between IDOT and Oak Park, I think the future is looking bright for these stations which are currently very unpleasant.

Agency Meetings this week
 

Will anyone be attending the Metra Strategic Plan meeting Downtown tomorrow? (in reference to Metra assisting in the Red Line shutdown - and interagency cooperation in general):
http://gridchicago.com/2012/metra-se...an-in-decades/

And the CTA Red Line Shutdown meeting next Saturday (I will be at both):
http://www.transitchicago.com/redsouth/

Is the idea of decking over the expressway through Oak Park still a realistic priority for Oak Park officials?

No, they've pretty much dropped discussion about it.

The liner buildings seem like a much more cost-effective way to restore some continuity, and rebuild the Oak Park Ave business district that was gutted by the Ike.

Harlem and Austin could get the same treatment with liner buildings, but they're not heavily pedestrian streets. Best thing to do there is simply to provide wide sidewalks with a solid barrier facing the highway and planter boxes facing the surface street.

^ Now THIS....my friend.....

is a

GOOD IDEA :tup:

God Bless Oak Park for their vision..

I agree that Oak Park Ave would be a much better business district with liner buildings. Plazas on Harlem and Austin could be considered the first step in an incremental capping of the Ike (contingent on stumbling upon a huge pot of money, of course.)

BTW, I follow these things pretty closely, and I haven't seen anything in the press about proposed liner buildings. Do you have a link?

It's posted on the Village's website for the Eisenhower committee.

http://www.oak-park.us/news/Special_Report_IKE.html

The rendering is dated 2012. The great thing about the liner buildings is that the Village could possibly pay for it by itself, with various, relatively small grants. Shouldn't cost more than $30 $15 million.

Thanks!

Just an FYI, maybe most of us are familiar with the Columbus Cap (one of the more recent ones I can think of). Blair Kamin wrote about it in 2011, he quotes $10 million.

The Harlem Interchange option shown above looks the best to me. A simple easy to understand 4-way intersection when driving, and reasonable crosswalks for pedestrians.

More information can be found here, with detailed notes about the innovative design of the cap and the cost breakdown. The article doesn't reveal how much ODOT spent building the substructure, because it was combined with the road overpass in a single job and the costs are hard to separate out. After ODOT finished erecting the bridge, the developer spent $7.8 million to erect the lightweight building atop the bridge.

I think $15-20 million is a fair figure, given inflation, the generally higher cost of construction in Chicago and on the other hand, the efficiencies that can be gained when IDOT rebuilds the overpass in a few years.

^ I had no idea what you meant by "liner buildings" until you posted the link to the Columbus project, and then I remembered the posts about it here a while back. Is it likely that for various reasons this would end up having to wait for Eisenhower construction to complete?

These are a genius idea that should play out all over downtown. If it were done in the West Loop, who would get the rent (who owns the land) - the State, via IDOT?

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Not to change the subject to a different, long conversation, but would there be enough space around Maywood to widen the Eisenhower, or would the easier solution (including considering construction staging and lane closures) be double-decking it for a mile or so, with inbound and outbound on separate levels? This would also help solve the problem of direct sun in the eyes for early-morning inbound, or afternoon outbound, drivers.

I'm surprised this hasn't gotten any publicity in the local village press. I'm going to see if I can drum up some more info.

I think through Maywood the Ike will be widened in a conventional manner, with abrupt retaining walls replacing the sloped embankments on the side. There will probably be some homes that need to get seized around the exits, although in Oak Park and Forest Park, IDOT has pledged not to widen the "ditch".

I am not a wrongful death attorney so take what I say with a grain of salt. Illinois does not allow for punitive damages in wrongful death lawsuits. Therefore, successful plaintiffs are awarded pecuniary losses only. This includes financial support, etc. but also includes emotional suffering to surviving plaintiffs. Because of this, the best plaintiff in a wrongful death suit is a young parent with a surviving spouse and many dependents. The worst is an old person with no heirs. Since this was an older couple, there is no direct financial support to any surviving dependents and damages will be mostly for emotional suffering. Therefore, UP won't be taken to the cleaners. However, there could be a relativity large emotional damage award. UP will probably settle because they don't want to take the chance or they can go to trial, see what the jury/judge awards and settle off of that.

Without punitive damages, there is no real way to hit huge tens of millions of dollars award. Up until 2007, Illinois did not allow for emotional suffering either. Unfortunately for all of us, our lives are not worth that much. Seemed like a nice couple though.

+1