District/Line:
Union Pacific North
Location(s):
North side of Chicago
Type:
Bridge replacement
Union Pacific North Bridge Project
Project Description:
Metra has started a major project to build a completely new Ravenswood Station and replace 22 aging bridges along the Union Pacific North Line on the north side of Chicago.
The construction will have minimal impact on the UP North schedule, because two tracks will remain open to carry trains during the work. There may be some delays to off-peak and weekend trains.
In order to keep two tracks open, a new track must be built west of the two existing tracks, along the western edge of the elevated right of way. This will require sturdier retaining walls along that edge, which will have an impact on the community (see Community impact below). When the project is completed, there will be room along the eastern edge of the right of way to add a third new track in the future, if there is demand and money to do so.
The 22 bridges are more than 100 years old and can no longer be economically repaired and maintained. The new bridges will last for more than 100 years.
Their replacement will be done in two phases of 11 bridges each. The first phase, which will take until November 2015, will cover bridges over Balmoral, Foster, Winnemac, Lawrence, Leland, Wilson, Sunnyside, Montrose, Berteau, Irving Park and Grace. Construction of the new Ravenswood Station, the only stop in the construction zone and the busiest stop on the UP North line, will also be done in the first phase.
Bridges between Addison and Webster will be done in the second phase, which will finish in November 2019.
Ravenswood Station
The new Ravenswood Station, to be rebuilt in its current location, will offer longer, covered platforms, warming shelters, improved lighting, landscaping, a ticket office, vendor space, ramps and stairs. It will be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
UP North trains have been using a temporary platform on the inbound side of Ravenswood since last fall. Trains will continue to use that platform until the first phase of the bridge project is done in 2015.
Another temporary platform will be built on the outbound side, north of Lawrence, when construction begins on the new station in Spring 2012. Trains will use that temporary platform until the outbound side of the new station is completed in about two years.
Construction updates and alerts will be sent to all riders who have signed up to receive them under the “My Metra” feature at Metra’s website, www.metrarail.com.
Community impact
The new plan to rebuild 22 bridges along the Union Pacific North Line will require the construction of sturdier retaining walls along the western edge of the elevated right of way on the north side of Chicago, which will impact existing landscaping.
Metra is committed to doing everything it can to minimize the impact of the retaining wall work on landscaping in the area.
The sturdier walls are needed because the plan calls for keeping two tracks open for trains during construction. In order to do that, a new track must be built closer to the western edge of the elevated right of way, on the west side of the two existing tracks. The walls are needed to support that new track.
It was Metra’s desire to avoid the expensive retaining wall work that prompted the unsuccessful plan last summer to operate inbound and outbound trains on a single track in the construction zone. That plan would have centered the new bridges and tracks in the right of way, minimizing the retaining wall work needed on either side.
Where there is room to do so, Metra will minimize the size of the wall by putting in a landscaped slope up to the tracks. In other locations, the higher walls will be made as presentable as possible. For details, please click here and the for track diagram click here.
When the project is completed, there will be room along the eastern edge of the right of way to add a third new track in the future, if there is demand and money to do so. If that third track is added in the future, similar retaining wall work would be needed along the eastern edge of the right of way.
