Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) has announced a new initiative that will establish a blueprint for making the second largest transit agency 100 percent accessible over the next 20 years.
CTA Strategic Accessibility Program is a comprehensive plan that will outline both short-term and long-term initiatives to make the CTA’s rail system fully ADA accessible over the next 20 years and plans to either repair and/or replace existing rail system elevators.
Over the next year, a working group consisting of City of Chicago, CTA, ADA and disability community members, architects and others will be responsible for outlining a high-level cost estimate and schematic schedule for achieving the goal of 100% accessibility – all of which will be dependent on funding. As part of this program, CTA will conduct public outreach to solicit feedback from the general public and disability community, which will be taken into consideration before the report is finalized sometime in early 2017.
Nearly 70 percent of CTA’s 145 rail stations are currently wheelchair accessible. Of the 46 stations currently not equipped with elevators, many are well over a half-century old, built well before the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act. More than half of those stations are expected to receive ADA improvements in the coming years as part of larger capital improvement projects.
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