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After a decades-long process, a project that aims to transform Chicago’s transit landscape is underway.
The Chicago Transit Authority, along with the joint venture Walsh-Vinci Transit Community Partners, began building the Red Line extension on April 24, according to an announcement by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.
The 5.5-mile-long expansion project, which it costs $5.7 billion according to an estimate of 2025, rapid rail transit will be extended to the city The Far South for the first time It will provide more direct access to the 24-hour red line, also known as Laccording to the ad.
The Windy City tapped the JV, formed by Chicago-based builder Walsh Construction and French contractor Vinci, as design-build contractor in 2024.
The extension will begin at the 95th Street terminus and extend to the vicinity of 130th Street, with four stations at 103rd Street, 111th Street, Michigan Avenue near 116th Street and 130th Street. Each station will include bus, bicycle, pedestrian and parking facilities.
In addition, the construction crew will build a new rail yard and related rail facilities near 120th Street, according to the news release.
Work is already underway: contractors have demolished properties that were acquired to build the extension and moved utility poles and other equipment into the path of the new track. This spring, the construction crew will drill where the track columns will go and pour concrete to make way for new foundations and track columns.
In total, the Red Line extension is expected to create more than 12,500 construction jobs, according to the announcement. The team plans to begin construction on the station in 2027, according to the announcement.
Getting to this point has been a challenge. Already more than half a century in the making, Chicago and the state of Illinois were gutted last October by the federal government after President Donald Trump’s administration. blocked more than 2 billion dollars in funding the Red Line extension and the Red and Purple upgrade, another Chicago transit project, for a fight over diversity and inclusion programs.
The city filed a lawsuit against the federal government in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on March 17. On March 26, the court ordered the US Department of Transportation and Federal Transit Administration to resume payments on the red line extension and Red and Purple Modernization.
