5/6/04
Motorists who travel the Dan Ryan Expressway and CTA Red Line customers will experience minimal impact while work is underway on the Chicago Transit Authority's $282.6 million Red Line rehabilitation project.
CTA construction plans call for the periodic use of the left lane and shoulder of the expressway in both directions, and involve a combination of lane shifts, temporary ramp closures and by-pass tracks at eight work zones between Cermak Road and 95th Street. The work schedule is subject to change due to weather or unforeseen issues.
Traffic impact for the week of May 9 ?16 will be:
LANE SHIFTS:Lane shifts continue northbound and southbound between 84th and 88th Streets and are expected to last until late May.
Lane shifts continue northbound and southbound between 67th and 71st Streets until mid-June.
Lane shifts continue northbound and southbound between 42nd Place and 45th Place through early July.
TEMPORARY RAMP CLOSURES:The northbound 71st Street entrance ramp is temporarily closed until mid-June.
NIGHTTIME ONLY LANE CLOSURES:CTA continues smoothing and paving the outside shoulder of the Dan Ryan Expressway in preparation for upcoming lane shifts.
The northbound left driving lane will be closed intermittently from 8 p.m. until5 a.m. at 87th Street until mid-May, at 69th Street until early June and at 45th Street until mid-July.
Nighttime only closures will continue intermittently through the fall.
BY-PASS TRACKS IN SERVICE:The use of by-pass tracks that have been in place between 87th and 84th Streets since early April will discontinue the weekend of May 14 - 16, allowing trains to return to the main tracks.
By-pass tracks also are in place between 67th and 71st Streets until early June.
Customers will continue to board trains at their normal station locations.
PROJECT SUMMARY:The Dan Ryan branch of the Red Line runs down the middle of the Dan Ryan Expressway and includes nine stations from Cermak - Chinatown to 95th/Dan Ryan. When the rehabilitation project concludes in winter 2006, the CTA will have improved signal, track, communications and power substation systems, renovated seven Red Line stations from Sox-35th to 87th Street and rehabilitated the bus bridges at 69th and 95th Streets.
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