City Hopes to Use State Law Allowing Transit TIFs to Rebuild CTA Red Line
 

http://chi.streetsblog.org/2016/08/1...-cta-red-line/

Thursday August 11, 2016

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office has started crafting an ordinance that would activate a state law allowing the city to create “transit TIF districts” – officially called Transit Facility Improvement Areas – around four transit projects, according to the Chicago Tribune......

Crane was delivered tonight for Washington & Wells. The entire Loop was built 120 years ago in less time than this one station has taken just to do substructure, and without closing any streets for more than a weekend.

It is taking awhile but they are also keeping the tracks open as well, so I'm not sure the comparison is applicable. But in general, yes, it takes way longer to build anything today than it did 50+ years ago.

Comparison Station Boardings METRA ELC/CTA RED LINE
 

Comparison Station Boardings Metra(2014) CTA(2016)

METRA ELECTRIC MAIN

• Kensington...............1,081
• 111 St......................... 19
• 107 St......................... 31
• 103 Rosemoor................43
• 95 St. CSU.................... 43
• 91 St. Chesterfield......... 26
• 87 St. Woodruff..............56
• 83 St. Avalon Park..........50
• 79 St. Chatham..............57
• 75 St. Grand Crossing.....15
• 63 St...........................154

METRA SOUTH CHICAGO

• 93 St. South Chicago.. 652
• 87 St.........................117
• 83 St.........................113
• Cheltenham..................79
• Windsor Park...............100
• South Shore............... 179
• Bryn Mawr................... 88
• Stony Island...............161

METRA BLUE ISLAND

• Blue Island........ 124
• Burr Oak........... 124
• Ashland Av......... 98
• Racine Av........... 33
• Stewart Ridge..... 37
• State St............. 54

CTA RED LINE

• 95th St...... 10,863
• 87th St........ 4,236
• 79th St........ 7,091
• 69th St........ 5,403
• 63rd St........ 3,200

Source: www.rtams.org

DH

All kinds of Environmental Impact Studies, RFP's, Bids, Corruptions, etc., etc.....

There seem to be at least 1 or 2 places where the steel structure of the Wabash el looks to have been entirely severed and entire sections replaced, as in this photo. Did this just happen over the past few weeks, and were they able to accomplish the work without any disruption to weekday train runs?

There were weekend reroutes from 10 pm Friday to 4 am Monday, when the Wabash Ave. was closed to "L" traffic. Pink and Green lines were rerouted via Van Buren and Wells Sts. The Brown and Orange lines were merged and operated over the same route.

DH

^I'm trying to figure out what the Geofoam stacked on the sidewalk is for. Will this station include a sledding hill?

They're filling sidewalk vaults. Normally they use gravel for this, but geofoam doesn't put as much weight on the foundations of adjacent buildings. It's also easily removable if CTA decides they need more vault space in the future for electrical or signal equipment.

^ No question is too obscure for ardecila to find an answer to. Even ones that baffle Mr Downtown. Do you have access to some kind of dark web wikicitya?


(I assume this isn't your summer version of an April prank, right?)

Hmm, was just on the Red Line between Grand and Lake and suddenly felt a huge BANG BANG every time the wheels went over one point. Hopefully not a broken rail. The driver slammed on the breaks after about the third one. Then proceeded slowly and kept grinding to a halt until we got all 8 cars past.

Wonder if they'll shut it down...too bad it's rush hour.

Good reporting! "slammed on the brakes"....Sorry, I'm a retired teacher.

DH

EDIT.....Red Line

95th/Dan Ryan-bound Subway Trains Rerouted to Elevated Tracks
Service Disruption
Predictions Disabled Affects Train Tracker prediction availability (What's this?)
95th-bound Red Line trains are temporarily rerouted to the elevated tracks between Fullerton and Cermak-Chinatown.
Tue, Aug 16 2016 9:06 AM to TBD

Wow!

2nd EDIT.....Red lines are running, probably speed is reduced in problem area. Work window anticiplated.....

Red Line
Upcoming Alerts
Red Line
Boarding Change, Delays Between Grand and Cermak-Chinatown
Planned Work
Predictions Disabled Affects Train Tracker prediction availability (What's this?)
Wed, Aug 17 2016 - 11:00 PM to Thu, Aug 18 2016 - 4:00 AM

Nope, just saw them sticking geofoam in the vaults a few months ago. I'm just guessing about the thinking behind it...

I love geofoam as much as the next guy, but, er, shouldn't you explicitly distinguish between supposition and fact when crafting statements? (For example, perhaps it's only the easy-removability reasoning, but not the foundation-weight reasoning, that was actually considered.) It shouldn't take much more time to incorporate such caveats when writing posts. Even when fairly, but not totally, certain about something. (This is a forum and obviously rigorous journalism standards don't apply, but heck some folks here are just regarded as speaking with substantial authority on things.)

19th Annual Transportation Symposium.....
 

19th Annual Transportation Symposium

http://illinoistransportationsymposium.com/

Tuesday, November 15th, 2016

Chicago Cultural Center

78 E. Washington Blvd.
Chicago, IL 60602


I will be an Exhibitor there.

Work beginning Monday on Metra Electric Line to cause delays
 

http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/wor...-cause-delays/

Commuters on Metra’s Electric Line should prepare for 10-minute delays and altered schedules as major work begins Monday on the line that runs from the city to the south suburbs......

I recently noticed geofoam was being used under a sidewalk while it was being torn up around Folio Square. At first I thought it was some really nice concrete work, then I noticed the foam crumbles.

http://i.imgur.com/oAX36Zkl.jpg

The city will be made entirely of geofoam just in time for the next big fire.

^ With the rebar sticking out the top, those look more like insulated concrete forms. Similar foam material, but used in thin sheets as form work for a concrete pour rather than as a replacement for soil.

It's not quite complete but the Argyle shared street is looking really rough

So maddening. It's like they spaced the bricks out just wide enough so that cigarettes and other trash can get stuck in-between.

Hopefully it looks a lot better once all the trees are in. Right now, it already looks tired and unkept.