CHICAGO: Transit Developments

[BVictor1]

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.

[Via Chicago]

Originally Posted by pip

Union Station is busy? Really?

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?)

[k1052]

Originally Posted by Via Chicago

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

[a chicago bearcat]

deleted
<misread>

[BVictor1]

Originally Posted by Via Chicago

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?)

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

[Via Chicago]

Originally Posted by BVictor1

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.

[Nowhereman1280]

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.

[Via Chicago]

Originally Posted by Nowhereman1280

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

[Mr Downtown]

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.

[a chicago bearcat]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

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?

[Mr Downtown]

^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.

[Via Chicago]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

^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.

[Mr Downtown]

^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.

[k1052]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

^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

[spyguy]

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.”

[the urban politician]

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

[sammyg]

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 -









I think it already looks better.

[VivaLFuego]

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.

[Pandemonious]

^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.

[Mr Downtown]

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