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On Tuesday, Illinois, local and Metra officials gathered to mark the beginning of a $4.5 million project to rehabilitate Metra’s Cicero Station on the BNSF Railway Co. line.

When the rehabilitation work is completed in about 18 months, Cicero riders will have a safe, modern and appealing rail station and a new, paved parking lot with 136 spaces and room for the possible addition of 100 more, Metra officials said in a prepared statement.

The new station and parking will also encourage new riders to commute from Cicero on Metra BNSF line trains, they said.

The project includes two new seven-car platforms with tactile warning strips, a new warming house on the outbound side, a headhouse and ramp enclosure with heated waiting area on the inbound side, a reconstructed ramp to meet Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, high-intensity overhead lighting, utility improvements, landscaping and a new parking lot.

The project is being funded through a state bond program.

The station was last rebuilt in the 1970s. Time and weather have deteriorated its stairways, ramps, tunnel and platform canopies.