New CDOT 2010 Projects

LaSalle/Congress Intermodal Center
http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/6634/lasalle1.jpg
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/7673/lasalle3.jpg
http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/9487/lasalle2.jpg

Morgan/Lake
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/7277/morgan1r.jpg

New Halsted St Bridge, North Branch Canal
http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/682/halsted1.jpg

Navy Pier Flyover
http://www.chicagojournal.com/dropins/npf_121709.jpg
Chicago Journal

35th Street Pedestrian Bridge
http://burnhamplan100.uchicago.edu/f...et_bridge1.jpg
UChicago Burnham Plan Centennial

Apparently CDOT also wants to begin construction on a big grade-separation project at 130th and Torrence. This is all in addition to the massive projects on Wacker and Congress. Also, the work at Grand/State will wrap up. All in all, this is shaping up to be a good year.

I believe this is another CREATE project; GS15a.

Dont be surprised if this is funded in the yet to be announced Federal Highway Transportation bill.

Looks pretty good so far. Thanks for the updates.

http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/cta-...ion-rehab.html

CTA to tap $3 million in TIF funds for Wilson station rehab
Kevin O'Neil

The CTA will use up to $3 million in tax increment financing to rehabilitate the Red Line's Wilson station -- long considered one of the worst stations.

^ So the parking lot remains? What exactly are they lining the street edge with? Are those supposed to be bus shelters in continuum covered with advertising? Seriously, all I'm seeing here is a staircase, some bus shelters, a widened sidewalk, and a few trees. A bit of a disappointment..

CTA bus union leader: Monday could bring strike vote
But L workers union says he doesn't plan to follow suit

The leader of the union representing CTA bus drivers says there could be a strike vote Monday, in the wake of CTA service and staff cuts.

“It’s a very good possibility,” said Darrell Jefferson, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 241. “It’s up to the members whether the vote takes place.”

http://www.suntimes.com/news/transpo...022310.article

great!!

That's a good thing. I thought the lot was going to disappear as well, but this preserves a prime development site for the future, and offers the opportunity for a developer to perhaps negotiate a FAR bonus in exchange for making future improvements to the transit center.

Would this be an illegal stop work action? If it is, fire these assholes if they act on the threat. Seriously, unemployment is over 10%, there is large labor pool who would be more then willing to drive a bus with good base pay and benefits, they may already have a CDL in hand. Can CTA even legally hire people in the event of a strike?

The union really needs some new leadership. The public is already pissed at them, and a strike would only work to worsen their public perception; perhaps to the point where the state legislator may take away their legal protections (at least I hope). The rail union sees this, and has refused to bring up the consideration of a strike because the "riding public has suffered enough".

This project is of nebulous origins, but I think the main goal is to provide an actual terminal and 'layover' point for the 22 and 36 bus routes (and/or possibly the 145 and 148), which have had their southern termini and routing awkwardly shuffled throughout the Printer's Row area for quite some time -- seems most businesses and residents nor the aldermen representing them like to have buses parked in front for any length of time, and further if there isn't enough space to stage buses, it gets that much harder to operate a remotely reliable and regular service in the congested PM Peak. Unless there's something I haven't heard, the "intermodal" connection is really more just seizing an opportunity to bundle such a connection with the street & sidewalk reconstruction, rather than in meeting a pressing demand for massive quantities of Rock Island<--> CTA bus transfer traffic. Of course, it also simply serves as another access point to/from LaSalle Street station, on the south side of forboding Congress "Parkway" no less, so there is a simple station accessibility benefit to residences and businesses in the area from that as well.

Has anyone ever seen these postcards showing early plans for the post office in between Union and NW?

Would've been beautiful. Amazing how much they thought it would look like Penn Station. I love the Chciago typo.

http://chicagopc.info/Chicago%20post...c&nw%20320.jpg
link

All grabbed from the wonderful Chicago History in Postcards website. Here's the railroad stations page.

And the original tower plan. Wow.

http://chicagopc.info/Chicago%20post...0new%20371.jpg
link

And what WAS built.

http://chicagopc.info/Chicago%20post...tion%20143.jpg
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http://chicagopc.info/Chicago%20post...0bus%20371.jpg
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As a person who has walked past that lot some untold thousands of times, I can say that the addition of the sidewalk on the east side of the street alone justifies this project for me.

Nothing worse than competing with other pedestrians and vehicles for a tiny strip of gutter...

It should have included a matching stairway/elevator on the east side of the station. The Feds have closed off LaSalle for Homeland Security purposes, so you could just use some of the street ROW. If you were smart, you could extend a short underground passage to allow for a direct elevator/stair connection between Metra and the Blue Line.

Helmut Jahn sketches for HSR station near old Post Office
 

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune....+Cityscapes%29

From: BLAIR KAMINS Blog


February 25, 2010
A high-speed rail station proposal from Helmut Jahn: Not perfect, but it gets the civic debate on the right track
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Chicago architect Helmut Jahn has a promising but imperfect plan for a high-speed rail station in Chicago. It’s not much more than a sketch, certainly not a finished blueprint. Yet it deserves to be taken seriously, if only because it should kick-start a much-needed debate over the right place for the hub of the Midwest’s just-funded high-speed rail network.

Jahn, who has long excelled at transportation facilities, has prepared the plan for Reuben Hedlund, a civic-minded zoning lawyer who headed the Chicago Plan Commission from 1991 to 1997. Hedlund does not appear to be in a position to profit from the project, which he calls the Daniel Burnham Central Station in honor of the great turn-of-the-century Chicago planner. So the proposal can be considered clean, even if it would likely send the values of nearby properties skyrocketing.

The plan calls for the demolition of a brick U.S. Postal Service building in the 300 block of West Harrison Street, which stands just southeast of the old Chicago Main Post Office astride the Congress Expressway, and is mainly used by carriers who deliver mail to the South and West Loop (below). In its place would rise a riverfront office or condo tower and a low-slung train concourse with a swooping roof that would reach out like a tail, sheltering tracks and train platforms below street-level (above).

Let’s set aside the biggest practical hurdle to this vision—whether the Postal Service would sell the building or join private developers in a partnership to rebuild the site.

Advocates expect high-speed rail to make its debut in Chicago by 2014, in the wake of President Barack Obama’s decision to award $8 billion to the concept nationwide. That means Chicago and Mayor Richard Daley have a choice: Are they going to get on board and create a railroad gateway worthy of the city--or are they going to let a golden opportunity pass, cramming new passengers into an already-jammed Union Station?

The stakes are enormous, and not just because high-speed rail is the signature public works initiative of Obama’s controversial economic stimulus package. The location and architectural character of the station will invariably influence whether people switch from planes, as well as energy-hogging vehicles, to this greener form of getting around. The station also could propel a new wave of downtown development once the recession ends. Yet there has been precious little leadership on this issue from City Hall.

Whatever explains the city’s recalcitrance, this much is clear: Union Station is a poor candidate to serve as a high-speed rail hub.

Despite the soaring image of its barrel-vaulted Great Hall, the passenger concourse east of the hall is confusing and confining, a warren trapped within the structural columns that hold up the office building above it. Going forward, Union Station lacks adequate space to marshal more passengers and handle more trains. Nor does it connect to the Chicago Transit Authority’s express service to O’Hare. Its fundamental problem, though, is that it isn’t really a station. It’s a terminal.

Almost all of Union Station’s tracks, whether northbound or southbound, stop at the station instead of running straight through. That’s no good if you’re a high-speed rail passenger traveling, say, from Milwaukee to Cincinnati. You’d have to change trains in Chicago. Who has time for that? You’d fly instead.

In contrast, Hedlund is touting his site as the best of both worlds: It offers access to the train tracks that emerge from Union Station’s south end without the station’s claustrophobic structural web...............................more sketches in link

http://i581.photobucket.com/albums/s...c1914970c-.jpg

http://i581.photobucket.com/albums/s...c1b84970c-.jpg

We don't need yet another station that offers no CTA integration or easy transfers to Metra that will only add to the auto traffic snarl around the west loop stations.

Build the WLTC, if needed bore additional HSR tracks under Canal.

VERY interesting.

Carroll Ave Light Rail.

Carroll St. Light Rail? How does an isolated route with no possible connection to any CTA train lines aid connectivity?

As for this proposal, what possible use is an HSR station with platforms only 600 feet long?

Which doesn't go into the loop and would have to be extended further south than anticipated then cut over on Harrison to even get close to the station.

I'd even rather they demolish 222 S Riverside and entirely redo the concourse, platforms, and track configuration than see the Jahn proposal built.

Its an interesting spot for a station. the clinton street subway would provide the necessary cta connection. as for the clinton-carroll street line, that will be integrated with the monroe st busway so you could theoretically build a station at congress with an underground pedway under congress to the HSR station (1 block) and have direct connections to the loop (via clinton - monroe st busway, and McCormick continuing on the lakefront line) and the major N-S CTA route (red line through clinton subway). that's a long way off but realistically, so is any HSR station.

On the sketch I see 240M penciled in...
240 meters=787 feet according to my metric conversion table.

On the Talgo website they state that the 250 trainset series maximum length is 183meters with 11 cars.

Not that I am advocating this station, but it looks like the platform length is adequate.

I wish they would demolish 222. Its really the only way to truly fix Union once and for all. Of course, if they had simply kept the concourse building in the first place we wouldnt have to have this discussion. What an incredibly shortsighted decision.

Yes, Helmut has written in "700 feet/240 m." But that's for the longest platform; the other three are substantially shorter. Why would you build a station for the future where only one platform can even accommodate a single Talgo trainset, when you're hoping that 20 years from now you'll need a double set every semester break or holiday weekend?

I think a lot could be done at the current location, as I've mentioned in the past. Four run-through tracks could be created, and you could push the food court and even some Amtrak services upward into the first two floors of the 222 building. You could then take in about half the riverside walkway and the current food court to be the commuter waiting room and circulation, and reopen the taxi drives and use the Great Hall for intercity travelers.

I don't think that's the only way to fix Union. 222 could easily be renovated into an awesome station if they just put the money into it. I believe 222 is a steel tube construction like the Hancock and many other buildings. This means that floor sections bear no weight and can be cut out at will. I vote that they completely gut the bottom five floors of or so and leave only the elevator cores and load bearing beams. Then just rearrange the platforms and station functions contained within to the most effective layout and encapsulating the whole thing in a glass atrium. How sweet would that be to see the whole first five floors of 222 without any floor plates or cladding, suspended over an active train station, protected from the elements only by a skin of glass in the shape of a bubble (maybe something similar to Jahn's U of C library, but with a 1970's tower poking out of the top).

I might do my own sketches of this concept and post them here!

222 is so utterly unremarkable that I highly doubt anyone would miss it, particularly millions of passengers who are stuffed through it's dank bowels annually.

Don't be fooled by the Mid-America Commodity Exchange, which does appear to have a steel exoskeleton like the Hancock. 222 S. Riverside is a composite steel frame and concrete tube structure. I'm no engineer, but I don't think you can remove too much of the lower floor slabs before you start having torsion concerns.

What about only removing one or two floor slabs to create something of an open atrium in the middle (albeit with all the structural columns still there)? If one could merely take out one floor, having stairs/escalators descend from street level into a concourse with high ceilings whose only obstructions are the columns, with easy visibility to the under-street passageway to the Great Hall which itself could take on some of the concourses current functions not to mention serve as the waiting area for eventual HSR intercity travel on the deep HSR tracks under Clinton...

I dunno, I'd be surprised if the station isn't somewhat salvageable, if it is considered carefully from a user experience standpoint rather than as an unfortunate burden on the highrise, which is what the current smoke-filled dingy labyrinth feels like.

^ Has Mr. Kamin never heard of the Central Area Action Plan and the West Loop Transportation Center? Pretty bold plans, if you ask me. I"m not sure in which way the city is being recalcitrant, just realistic perhaps..

Union Station is busy? Really?

This won't make it any less smoke-filled... the platforms need better ventilation.

Why not replace this:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3637/...91c271.jpg?v=0

with something more open? You could build a giant vault between Canal and the edge of Gateway Center or hell, just rip that triangular skylight in the middle off. It directly blocks the diesel exhaust from exiting.

Of course, the vast majority of the platforms are blocked by buildings. Using air rights to develop wasn't a bad idea, but they didn't plan for expansion or ventilation. Air rights may have worked at Grand Central, but Grand Central has been electrified for 100 years. Union Station in DC, the only similarly-sized terminal with buildings over the platforms, has the same problem.

Actually, the triangular skylight is over the baggage platform, not the tracks. It's the open slots on either side that were specifically engineered to draw the smoke from steam locomotives up and out of the trainshed. If you remove the skylight, the fumes would be pulled laterally onto the platforms.

Those who built over air rights were keenly aware of the ventilation problem—and imagine how pressing it was in the era of the steam locomotive. Holabird & Roche did extensive engineering and even a full-scale mockup to arrive at the proper chimney shape and ventilation system for the Daily News Building.

Wow, didn't know that. On the other hand, Union Station is noticeably smoggier than Ogilvie, which has no building obscuring the ventilation.

Community Meeting:
Congress Parkway, Wacker Drive and Eisenhower Expressway Construction


At 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 2, in the Robert Morris University Auditorium, 401 S. State St., Room 803, representatives from CDOT and IDOT will be giving a presentation for residents of the 2nd Ward regarding upcoming construction on Wacker Drive, Congress Parkway and the Eisenhower Expressway.

Construction will begin on April 1 and will drastically alter traffic flow through, in and out of the City. This is a very large, three-year project. The presentation will detail the type of work being done, street closures, detour routes and construction time-lines.


Attendance at this meeting is highly recommended as the traffic and construction experts will be on hand to answer questions.


While the construction itself will be concentrated in one geographical area, most of the Ward will be affected in some way by detour routes and expressway closures. For more information, please call Pasquale Neri in the 2nd Ward Public Service Office (312) 263-9273.

Are you being serious? Union Station is an absolute madhouse during the morning/evening rush hours.

And this is what it looks like when theres a delay.....(death trap, anyone?)

ugh

and the head house sits there an almost empty derelict, maybe Amtrak and Metra will wise up someday and actually make use of it

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The station maybe busy, the the facility itself in underutilized.

Well, the Great Hall is underutilized depending on how you look at things, but thats a big difference than saying the sation isnt busy.

Simple solution to solve this problem. destroy all of the lounges, waiting areas, ticket counters, and all that in 222 and move it all over to the Great Hall. Then just use the entirety of the track level in 222 for queing lines and utility uses like baggage and the likes. That way you make people wait in the great hall and then funnel them into the track/staging area in 222, no problem. Also reopen the freaking underground taxi drives. Also, if done correctly, this could open up enough space under 222 to install more than 2 lines that cut all the way through the station instead of terminating.

As mentioned before, the Great Hall is owned by a separate investment company. I believe this is why no operational functions are located there today

No, Amtrak still owns all of Chicago Union Station. They haven't (yet) conveyed the Great Hall or any part of it to a developer. The Great Hall isn't used because it's not air-conditioned and is distant from the current ticket windows and public address systems. Amtrak's 1991 remodeling created waiting areas in the concourse area scaled to their needs, but they have outgrown those facilities. Amtrak understands this and is always looking at ways to reconfigure things, especially if someone else will pay for it as part of the construction of a new tower atop the Great Hall.

good to see you dreaming on this one

single egress for anything seems problematic, let alone a commuter rail platform, under what exactly do the platforms end to the south?

^Do you have some inside knowledge on this? Don't you think it's likely that Union Station will get its tower during the next boom?

As for track egress, I've recently been pondering how half of the block south of Jackson is still uncovered trainshed. So if commuter crowding is a problem, stairways could go directly from Jackson down to five of the south platforms, just as they now do from Madison Street to the north platforms.

That next "boom" could be 20 or 30 years away for all we know. And I doubt any residential/commercial tower will do anything to address the logistical issues of the station at large.

Boarding stairs to the south platform would be nice, but ignores the fact that most people are coming from/going to the north/east end of the city. And that does nothing to address the crowded/outdated Amtrack facilities, or the underground labyrinth.

I just dont see how the Great Hall logically would link up as a truly functional boarding/departure facility. Its simply located in the wrong place in relation to tracks.

^By separating the intercity pax from the commuters. The commuters would continue to come and go through the east building, because they are coming from the Loop and arrive shortly before departure. They will always take the shortest path and need generous circulation space but only modest waiting facilities.

If the Great Hall were air conditioned, with a new offstreet bus facility to the south and reopened taxi drives, intercity pax (who don't necessarily come from the Loop) could arrive at the headhouse side and be held there until departure time. Move Amtrak ticket windows back to the historical location between the Great Hall and the concourse and other Amtrak facilities into the unused spaces around and above the Great Hall. Union Station would again function more or less as Thomas Rodd designed it to.

Also, if the WLTC gets built under Clinton the great hall will be a huge traffic corridor for people connecting between HSR/Amtrak/Metra/CTA

http://www.lakeeffectnews.com/2010/0...ng-with-helen/

Lunching With Helen
By LORRAINE SWANSON

...The CTA is also negotiating an intergovernmental agreement with the city to redo the Wilson CTA Red Line station. About $3 million from the Wilson Yard TIF would go toward fixing the roof and upgrading the retail space so it can be viable. Other plans include moving the turnstiles to the ground floor to open up the second floor platform to improve security and the overall aesthetics and usability of the station as part of the CTA’s “Red Line Visioning Study.”

Also on tap for development is the Wilson Mall and possibly turning it into a mini-French market.

“They’re still working on the design,” Shiller said. “The design is still there at Wilson and that design was enough for [the CTA] to determine that they want to do a new station on the south side of the street and preserve the structure on the north side as a secondary entrance.”

^ I wonder if creating a walkway to Target is still being considered

Scaffolding went up around the North/Clybourn station in preparation for the remodel. I shot these yesterday and you can see Bacci Pizza is closed, and most of the interior has been closed off -

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_a9YHcZ5sa7A/S5...2015.54.47.jpg

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_a9YHcZ5sa7A/S5...2015.54.54.jpg

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_a9YHcZ5sa7A/S5...2015.55.26.jpg

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_a9YHcZ5sa7A/S5...2015.56.30.jpg

I think it already looks better.

CDOT has posted a presentation on the new Morgan/Lake infill station:
http://www.cityofchicago.org/content...on_Jan2010.pdf

Very sharp looking station - definitely taking design cues from the other stations along Lake Street that were reconstructed in the 1990s, and notably nicer and more thoughtfully-designed and planned than the bulk of the unfortunate VE'd new Brown Line stations. The canopy/lighting look great. The streetscape and access design seem decent (sidewalks seem pretty narrow along the stationhouses, but hopefully the materials used are light/airy enough that it doesn't feel cramped. Not sure about the elevator towers and transfer bridge yet, hard to get a read on how the materials will look in the finished product.

All in all, great progress for West Loop, and hopefully a successful project that can serve as a model for an eventual South Loop infill station.

^Nice Find. The design looks pretty slick actually. I really like the mesh/rod/louvered facade cladding, and how it helps give a nice textured but simple way to celebrate the form to the two big boxes that make up either side of the station. The sidewalks do look a little tight at grade, especially if those entry doors do swing out...and I would have put additional entry doors where the vending machines are slotted facing morgan street to make the entrance more visible instead of only tucked into the narrow sidewalk facing the neighboring buildings. I wonder why there are only two turnstiles on the north building, but three on the south... seems strange since there is space.

^How many people would ever board here at one time outbound?