The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) announced that on July 28 it will begin the final major stage of the first phase of the Red and Purple Line Modernisation (RPM) project covering the construction of four new stations and reconstruction of northbound tracks of the two lines. Major track and station construction of the 1.3-mile (2 km) footprint began in 2021 with expected completion in 2024.
It is expected that the new stations will be opened in 2025.
The new and fully accessible stations will be constructed on the Red Line at Lawrence, Argyle, Berwyn and Bryn Mawr.
“We are pleased to start this next important phase of work that is modernising and improving the Red Line for our customers. This next major stage of construction will build state-of-the-art, fully accessible stations, moving us closer to our commitment to making the entire CTA rail system fully accessible,” CTA President Dorval R. Carter, Jr. said.
This stage means that CTA passengers will for the first time to able to ride Red and Purple Line express trains that will travel on the new track structure between Lawrence and Bryn Mawr that replaces century-old tracks.
Under stage B of the construction, CTA’s contractor, Walsh-Fluor, will demolish the southbound Red and Purple Line track structures – the two westernmost tracks. This includes complete demolition of the embankment wall and bridges over cross streets in the Uptown and Edgewater communities between W. Ardmore and W. Lawrence avenues.
Walsh-Fluor will build new track support columns on the west side of the CTA track structure, will drill deep shafts, about 60-80 feet below ground, and fill with concrete, to create the foundations for new track support columns that will be installed on top of the drilled shafts to support new track structure.
The new bridges and tracks will be built via an overhead gantry system that will install pre-cast concrete bridge segments that are manufactured off-site and trucked into the RPM project area, similar to how construction was performed during Stage A work. The construction method minimizes impacts to the community and the area needed by the contractor around the Red Line tracks to perform the construction work.
The new, permanent, fully accessible stations at Lawrence, Argyle, Berwyn, and Bryn Mawr will be built during this stage.
The first phase of Red and Purple Line Modernisation project comprises three major components including the reconstruction of the four above-mentioned stations, and replacement of track structure totalling 9.6 km of tracks (6 miles), the installation of a new signalling system on 37 km (23 miles) of tracks between Howard and Belmont, the reconstruction of Red and Purple Line track structure between Belmont and Newport/Cornelia currently underway and the construction of the Red-Purple Bypass which was completed in 2021.
The Red Line is CTA’s busiest rail line, providing more than 67 million rides a year and serving some of the most densely populated neighborhoods in U.S. The RPM programme, which will be done in multiple phases, will rebuild the 15.5 km (9.6-mile) stretch of Red and Purple Line track structure and stations on the North Side that are a century old.
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