Chicago Construction News staff writer
The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) and contractor Walsh-VINCI Transit Community Partners welcomed project supporters at the site of the future Michigan Red Line station on E. 116th Street and S. Michigan Ave. last week.
To showcase the project, the contractor displayed a 43-ton, 10-foot-long concrete bridge segment, the type of segment that will be used to build the Red Line Extension Project. The segment was manufactured for the CTA’s separate Red and Purple (RPM) Phase One Project now under way on the North Side.
“The Red Line Extension Project is coming to the Far South Side of Chicago and we are excited to share with the community what they have to look forward to,” said CTA President Dorval R. Carter, Jr. “As a native South Sider, I am proud to deliver on CTA’s promise of new affordable, convenient and reliable Red Line service, as well as creating a wealth of job and training opportunities to residents.”
Attendees were also provided with information about career and training opportunities with CTA and the RLE Project. The project is expected to create an estimated 12,512 RLE construction jobs and 59,800 jobs indirectly created because of the construction project.
New track and station construction is expected to begin late 2025 and be completed in 2030. CTA and Walsh-VINCI will hold community meetings in early 2025 to talk about how the project will be designed and built and answer questions from local residents and CTA customers.
The RLE project is a 5.5-mile extension of the Red Line starting at 95th Street Terminal to the vicinity of 130th Street and includes building four new, accessible stations near 103rd Street, 111th Street, Michigan Avenue and 130th Street, each of which is expected to include bus, bike, pedestrian and parking facilities.
The project will also build a new rail yard and related rail facilities near 120th Street to improve operational efficiency for the entire Red Line and CTA system. Construction is expected to start in late 2025 and be completed by 2030.
