What looks like it could be an uber-modern single-family home you see rising on the corner of Kimball and Barry Avenues in Avondale is a CTA substation for the Blue Line trains. Addressed by the city as 3501 West Barry Avenue, the substation is just one block south of the Belmont Blue Line subway station.
The outer shell is taking shape for the new Racine Blue Line station on Chicago’s Near West Side. The station, which lies between the inbound and outbound lanes of the Eisenhower Expressway, is part of the CTA’s $3 billion plan to reconstruct the Forest Park Branch of the Blue Line system. The Racine renovation alone, which extends from Racine Avenue to the east to Loomis Street to the west, is estimated to cost approximately $23 million.
Monday, after years of planning, delays, and, ultimately, construction, the CTA opened the new Damen Green Line L station at Damen Avenue and Lake Street on Chicago’s Near West Side. The station, approved in 2017, features lots of green, a pedestrian bridge between the inbound and outbound sides of the platform offering a spectacular view of the Chicago Skyline, and a mosaic art installation by local artist Folayemi Wilson in the atrium-style entrance lobby off Damen Avenue.
Construction on the Perkins&Will-designed CTA Damen Green Line station continues heading toward completion on Chicago’s Near West Side. Announced by the Emanuel administration in 2017 but delayed by a variety of factors form its originally scheduled opening in 2020, much progress has now been made to this point.
The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) has announced a new batch of stations to receive minor renovation work across the city. As a part of the system’s ongoing Refresh & Renew initiative which started in 2019, the authority under current president Dorval R. Carter will embark on some much needed maintenance work across all lines except the Yellow or Skokie Swift portion. The program itself is part of the greater ‘Meeting the Moment’ Action Plan the system has enacted.
