The Chicago Transit Authority is taking aim at its next major rehabilitation project, and it’s a big one: the North Side’s Red and Purple “L” lines.
But while plans to reconstruct the lines’ bridges, tracks, stations are taking shape, the money isn't — yet.
The 90-year-old lines are some of the most frequently-traveled tracks in the entire "L" system. The CTA is hoping to do a major overhaul similar to projects that rebuilt the vast majority of the infrastructure on the Brown, Pink and Green lines.
The goal, the agency says, is to create a master plan for the entire rehab that can be ready to go when funding becomes available. This week, it’s seeking the public’s input.
At meetings on Monday and yesterday, the CTA presented its “vision study” to residents on the North Side with detailed posters, drawings, lists and models detailing the deficiencies and the agency’s wish list.
The hope is that by letting the public know about the plan early on, they can be informed and excited allies in the process, said John Blum of Chicago Transit Partners, a consulting agency that works with the CTA.
“What we’re trying to do here is show everybody that we’re trying a holistic approach here, we’re not doing one station,” said Blum, who worked as an "L" conductor for 30 years. “We want to look at the whole route and say we want to make a package — like what we did with the Brown Line, and worked pretty well.”
But how much of this will get done, and how quickly?
The CTA’s budget for maintenance and improvements is notoriously tight and underfunded — the agency estimates it will need $9.6 billion to keep the system in good repair from 2010 to 2014, but only expects to get $2.8 billion, according to the 2010 budget.
That means the chances of a big-budget project like the Red and Purple Line corridor getting funded from the general pot are fairly low. So far, the project's only dedicated money in the next four years is $10 million of federal money for 2010, which surely won't pay for construction.
CTA President Rich Rodriguez seemed to indicate at Tuesday’s meeting that the project would not go forward unless specific, dedicated funding from another source came along.
“This is as much as a priority as any of the other projects that we’re working on,” Rodriguez said. “We want to be prepared for any kind of funding that becomes available and say, ‘We’ve got all these different projects in all these different types of phases.’”
That’s not an entirely unlikely scenario for the project to get funded. State Rep. Harry Osterman (D-Chicago) and State Sen. Heather Steans (D-Chicago) vowed at last night's meeting to fight for funding for the plan in Springfield.
The CTA Tattler says powerful U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) has been especially supportive of the plan in Washington, where a massive portion of the CTA’s capital improvement dollars originate.
There are two more vision study meetings this week, Wednesday at Truman College (1145 W. Wilson Avenue, Chicago) and Thursday at the Fleetwood-Jourdain Center (1655 Foster Street, Evanston). Both go from 6:00-8:30 p.m. For a sneak peek at the plan, check out the CTA's Web site.