Metra starts construction on Flossmoor Station renewal project

Metra and village of Flossmoor, Ill., officials yesterday broke ground on a $4 million project to rebuild the platforms and related facilities at the Flossmoor Station on Metra's Electric District Line.

The project involves the replacement of the existing platform, the concrete foundation, and north and south head-house walls, Metra officials said in a press release.

The work also will include a new warming house; new LED platform lighting; replacement of the existing accessible ramp, stair and trench drain on the northwest side of the tunnel and all of the trench inside the tunnel; repairs to concrete bridge columns; new retaining walls; and a new stairway.

"Station projects like Flossmoor are just the type of renewal our system needs and our passengers deserve,” said Metra Chief Executive Officer Don Orseno.

The station will remain open throughout the project with passengers diverted to one end of the platform while construction proceeds on the other. The station serves more than 1,000 riders each weekday on the Metra Electric District Line, which runs between University Park and Millennium Station in downtown Chicago.

The project's contractor is John Burns Construction. Construction on the south end is scheduled to begin May 23 and be completed by fall 2014. The entire project is slated for completion in early 2015.