ILLINOIS Governor Rod Blagojevich and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley announced on April 13 that the Federal Transit Administration had approved funding for a $530m project to expand capacity on Chicago Transit Authority’s Brown Line linking the city centre with Kimball/Lawrence in Ravenswood.
Bids for the five-year programme of work are due this month. The project includes lengthening platforms to accommodate eight-car rather than six-car trains; upgrading or replacing traction power, signalling and communications equipment; and rebuilding or refurbishing 19 stations.
On March 24 a ceremony was held at 47th Street station to mark the start of a $282·6m overhaul of CTA’s Dan Ryan branch from Cermak-Chinatown to the 95th Street southern terminal. Traction power, communications and stations will be upgraded along more than 14·5 km of the Red Line segment. A contract for resignalling has gone to Union Switch & Signal subsidiary Ansaldo Signal, which is also supplying equipment for the Douglas branch of CTA’s Blue Line.
Main contractor for the Red Line project is Kiewit/Reyes, which will carry out the work in three phases for completion in 2006.
