11/01/06
The Chicago Transit Authority announced that on Saturday, December 2 at 3 a.m. the Montrose and Addison stations on the Brown Line will temporarily close for renovation. Both the Montrose and Addison stations will temporarily close for 12 months while construction crews work to upgrade and extend platforms, rebuild the station house and make the station accessible to customers with disabilities. The adjacent stations ? Paulina, Irving Park and Damen ? will remain open during the temporary closure of the Montrose and Addison stations so customers may continue to use them to access Brown Line service.
?Construction is nearly complete at the Kedzie and Rockwell stations and well underway at 10 of the 18 stations included in the project. We are moving even closer to the project's finish line," said CTA President Frank Kruesi. ?The end result will be improved facilities and service for Brown Line customers."
Improvements at both the Montrose and Addison stations will include new station houses, new elevators and wheelchair accessible turnstiles, longer platforms to accommodate eight-car trains instead of the current six-car trains, security cameras, brighter lighting, tactile edging on the platforms and upgraded public address systems.
Both Montrose and Addison are located in areas where existing CTA service is plentiful. In addition to nearby rail stations, there are seven existing CTA bus routes that provide service near Montrose station on weekdays and weekends, the #78 Montrose, #50 Damen, #145 Wilson/Michigan Express, #80 Irving Park, #X80 Irving Park Express, #81 Lawrence and the #148 Clarendon/Michigan Express (weekdays, peak direction only).
Eight existing CTA bus routes provide service near Addison station, the #9 Ashland, #X9 Ashland Express (weekdays only), #11 Lincoln/Sedgwick (name and route modified effective December 17), #50 Damen, #77 Belmont, #80 Irving Park, #X80 Irving Park Express and the #152 Addison.
Signs with the upcoming closure date and information on alternate service for Montrose and Addison will be posted at both stations and on Brown Line trains, as well as at the Paulina, Irving Park and Damen stations. Information on the temporary closures, available service and overall project is also available on CTA's web site, www.transitchicago.com, or at www.ctabrownline.com.
Over the course of the three-year project, nine other stations on the line are also subject to temporary closure. Work will continue to be scheduled so that no two consecutive stations are closed at the same time on weekdays. Temporary closures are necessary in order to have the type of access needed to extend platforms, make stations accessible, stay within budget and keep the project on schedule.
CTA will continue to provide advance notice and alternate service options for customers as schedules for temporary station closures are finalized. Throughout the Brown Line construction project, slow zones and single track operation are periodically necessary near construction activity so, as a general rule, rail customers should allow extra travel time.
As part of the $530 million Brown Line capacity expansion project platforms will be lengthened to accommodate eight-car trains instead of the six-car trains currently in use, which will allow many more customers to board. In addition, stations will be made accessible to customers with disabilities by installing ramps or elevators and accessible turnstiles. The stations themselves will be rebuilt, with wider stairways, additional turnstiles and improved entrances and exits to allow for a better flow of customer traffic. The project is scheduled for completion on December 31, 2009.
Operating between downtown and the Northwest Side, the Brown Line was originally constructed in two phases, opening for service in 1900 and 1907. The line is the third busiest of CTA's rail lines, serving more than 66,000 customers each weekday, with 19 stations from Kimball on the north to the downtown Chicago Loop.
# # #