CTA to pursue $23 million Blue Line station project

The Chicago Transit Authority's (CTA) board yesterday approved a $23 million plan to rehabilitate and improve station entrances to the Blue Line's Illinois Medical District station.

The project will be paid for with $23 million in city tax-incremental financing (TIF) funds made available through Mayor Rahm Emanuel's "Chicago Neighborhoods Now" program, CTA officials said in a press release.

The project will include improvements to all three station entrances and a rebuilt main stationhouse on Ogden Avenue to make it accessible to riders with disabilities. The project also includes the reconstruction of two station-to-platform ramps at auxiliary entrances at Damen Avenue and Paulina Street to comply with Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines.

Additionally, the work includes improving station and platform lighting; installing additional security cameras and CTA bus and train tracker displays; and repairing the station platform canopy. Auxiliary entrances at Damen and Paulina will be refurbished with new flooring, wall and ceiling finishes, fare-payment equipment and customer assistant kiosks.

Built in 1958, the station is the closest CTA rail stop for one of the nation's largest medical districts, which is home to four major hospital systems: the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System, the John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County, Rush University Medical Center and the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center.

Over the past five years, ridership at the station has increased by 53 percent. Last year, ridership reached nearly 1.1 million station entries, making the station the third-busiest on the Blue Line’s West Side Forest Park branch.

The intergovernmental agreement for the project funding is subject to City Council approval, CTA officials said.