CTA breaks ground on Chicago's Garfield Gateway project

Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) officials and Mayor Rahm Emanuel last week broke ground on the $50 million Garfield Gateway project, which is designed to make major improvements to the Garfield Green Line station.

The Garfield Gateway project is expected to improve the transit experience and create a community focal point for the Washington Park community, CTA officials said in a press release.

The project will include extending platform canopies, upgrading platform accessibility and installing public art and landscaping. Additionally, the project calls for rehabilitating the original Garfield station house built in 1892 on the south side of Garfield Boulevard. The station house is no longer used by riders, but it is still owned by the CTA.

The historic station house, which earned City of Chicago landmark status in 2001, will be restored to its original turn-of-the century look.

In 2016, the CTA obtained $25 million in federal funding for the Garfield Gateway project through the U.S. Department of Transportation's Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant program.

Also last week, Emanuel announced the state budget included $174 million in funding for transportation infrastructure related to the future Obama Presidential Center on the city's south side.