CTA: Expect Delays On The L This Summer
By Chuck Sudo in News on Apr 6, 2012 5:20PM
CTA announced they'll be upgrading train track along the Wells and Van Buren L tracks. It's a 16-week project that will shut down Wells Street to traffic from Madison to Van Buren beginning April 20. Some of the track scheduled for upgrading are over 100 years old.
The work is expected to take four months to complete and will be suspended to accommodate people flocking downtown for Taste of Chicago, Lollapalooza and Blues Fest. (Before anyone holding tickets to Pitchfork Music Fest start complaining, that falls the same weekend as Taste. And it isn't like you weren't gonna bike to Union Park anyway.)
The work is mostly on weekends but does include some weeknight work, meaning trains entering and exiting downtown will make all stops on one set of tracks in parts. But that work isn't expected to affect rush hour traffic. The project's manager, Barney Gray, told the Sun-Times this is more than a mere facelift.
“Think about the structure platform down to the steel. All between that is coming out,” Gray said. “That means the rail ties, running rail, the third rail — how the train gets power” all will be replaced, along with safety mechanisms in place to prevent derailments.