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Hello,<br>
<br>
The below appeared in Monday's Chicago Tribune, which issue is no
longer available on Newsline. This information may be helpful for
those who need to travel to or from that area.<br>
<br>
Cordially,<br>
Bill<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
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-------- Forwarded Message --------
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<td>Article from Chicago Tribune News Section 2015 02 09</td>
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<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">Date: </th>
<td>Wed, 11 Feb 2015 05:47:06 -0500 (EST)</td>
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<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">From: </th>
<td>NFB-NEWSLINE Online <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:nfbnewsline@nfb.org"><nfbnewsline@nfb.org></a></td>
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<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">To: </th>
<td>William B. Reif <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:billreif@ameritech.net"><billreif@ameritech.net></a></td>
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<br>
<br>
Getting Around. Green Line opening fills gap Cermak-McCormick
Place station seen as boost to expansion in the South Loop. Jon
Hilkevitch. A roughly 2 1/2-mile gap in CTA rail service that
lasted 38 years on the Near South Side was eliminated Sunday, when
Green Line trains started making stops at a station on Cermak Road
near State Street. . The new $50 million Cermak-McCormick Place
station is within walking distance of the Motor Row entertainment
district and McCormick Place. City officials and developers said
they are optimistic that the new access to rapid transit will help
accelerate the expansion of businesses and housing in the South
Loop area. They also expect that conventioneers and other visitors
to McCormick Place and to a planned DePaul University arena nearby
will take advantage of riding public transit instead of driving.
The first big test will come this weekend when the Chicago Auto
Show opens at McCormick Place. The show runs Saturday through Feb.
22. The wheelchair-accessible station, equipped with two elevators
from the street to the platform, has entrances on both sides of
Cermak at State Street and an additional entrance a long city
block to the south, on 23rd Street, to provide a link for people
going to McCormick Place. The convention center, the future DePaul
sports facility and a planned 1,200-room Marriott hotel are a
couple of blocks east of the station. Four CTA bus routes -- No. 1
Bronzeville/Union Station, No. 4 Cottage Grove, No. 21 Cermak and
No. 29 State -- serve the station. "A lot of people, me included,
thought this station was long overdue and actually would never be
built," lifelong Chicago resident George Williams, 67, said Friday
while grabbing lunch at White Castle next to the rail stop. "It
was a missing link, and the buses weren't filling the need for
faster service. A Divvy bicycle-sharing station is also at
Cermak-McCormick, along with racks for other bicycles. In
addition, the Red Line's Cermak-Chinatown station is two blocks
west. Red Line trains run 24 hours. The Green Line does not
operate overnight. The signature design element of the new Green
Line "L" station is a tubelike canopy that provides a windbreak
for passengers on the center island platform. The perforated
panels on the 260-foot-long tube allow natural light to filter
onto the platform. On both ends of the tube are translucent
cantilevered canopies to protect riders from the weather. "Because
we only had so much space to work with, we decided to keep the
platform as open as possible," said Julian Silva, an architect
with the Chicago Department of Transportation, which managed the
station construction project for the CTA. "Instead of having wind
shelters at the center of the platform, which the CTA typically
does, we moved the shelters to the outside of the track, to create
this tubelike structure that protects you no matter where you are
in the boarding area," Silva said. The open, airy concept of using
perforated metal on the skin of the tube is carried through on
stainless steel "skyline benches" on the platform and on
galvanized steel mesh panels that enclose the walkway between the
main station entrance on Cermak and the 23rd Street entrance. The
station is outfitted with security cameras and illuminated with
LED lighting -- the first CTA station to have 100 percent LED
lights, which are more energy-efficient than fluorescent tubes.
But your Getting Around reporter felt concerned about personal
safety, especially late at night, with regard to the long,
zigzagging walk between the 23rd Street entrance and the main
station entrance on Cermak. Officials said the 23rd Street
entrance might not be staffed at all times that the station is
open. The new station has CTA Train Tracker monitors and other
travel information that is common at all rail stations. But more
signage beyond the markings on support columns would be helpful to
inform visitors about the station's proximity to Chinatown,
McCormick Place and Motor Row. CTA and CDOT officials said they
are working on installing more directional signs to complete the
project. The station is situated between the Red, Green and Orange
lines' Roosevelt stop near downtown and the 35th
Street-Bronzeville-IIT Green Line station. A so-called "infill"
station, it originally was scheduled to open in 2014, but
construction was delayed by harsh weather over the past two
winters, officials said. The project broke ground in August 2013.
"Last winter was pretty brutal when we were doing the work to
support the foundations for the tube structure. The drill rigs
were freezing up left and right," Cliff Olszewski, resident
engineer for H.W. Lochner Inc., a construction manager on the
project, said Friday as crews completed work for Sunday's opening.
The station erases a void that has existed since 1977 when the
CTA, citing declining ridership, closed the original Cermak (then
called 22nd Street) station. Critics at the time said the CTA
worsened the ridership losses years earlier when it limited
boardings to weekday rush periods only. The original station was
built in 1892 by the Chicago & South Side Rapid Transit
Railroad, which was Chicago's first elevated railway. The station
was torn down in 1978. Engineers who designed and built the new
station said the biggest challenge was squeezing it in between the
existing track and elevated structure -- and carrying out the
project while Green Line trains were operating. Rail service was
suspended over some weekends to accommodate the installation of
new tracks, railroad ties, signals and communications systems.
"The station structure is completely independent of the 'L'
structure," Silva said. The CTA is estimating 2,200 daily rider
boardings at the station. That would make Cermak-McCormick Place
the second-busiest on the South Side elevated branch of the Green
Line, behind 35th-Bronzeville-IIT, officials said. The Green Line
provides more than 63,900 rides on an average weekday, according
to the CTA. "Like the Morgan station that opened in 2012 on the
Green and Pink lines, this new station will help meet demand that
exists today, as well as future growth," CTA President Forrest
Claypool said. The Morgan station, at 958 W. Lake St. in the West
Loop, replaced a station that was closed in 1948. Built at a cost
of $38 million, Morgan was the first new "L" stop to open in 15
years. The Cermak-McCormick Place station, while under
consideration with a number of other options since at least 2002,
is the first station that began during the Emanuel administration.
Construction of the station, which is the 146th station on the CTA
system, was funded in part by tax increment financing and a
"congestion fee" charged to drivers who park downtown. Meanwhile,
construction is to start this year on a new Loop elevated station
at Washington/Wabash. The $75 million station will replace two
stations on Wabash, at Randolph and Madison, according to CDOT
plans. ---------- Contact Getting Around at
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:jhilkevitch@tribpub.com">jhilkevitch@tribpub.com</a> or c/o the Chicago Tribune, 435 N.
Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611; on Twitter @jhilkevitch; and at
facebook.com/jhilkevitch. Read recent columns at
chicagotribune.com/gettingaround. <br>
<br>
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