Wassup at Fullerton? Station entrance moved; track work proceeds
Work on the CTA Brown Line project kicked into a higher gear -- affecting more people -- on Sunday when the Fullerton station entrance was moved 80 feet to the east. CTA riders will use the temporary entrance for about 24 months while the existing historic station house is moved to the north side of the street, and a new accessible station is built on the south side.
"Additional work includes installing brighter lighting, tactile edging and accessible turnstiles, realigning tracks to allow for elevator installation, widening platforms and upgrading the public address system. "
Meanwhile, at the Fullerton track level, work proceeds quickly on the new platforms and tracks. And both friends and strangers have been asking what exactly is going on there. Here's what I know, from the CTA:
"The reconstruction of the Belmont and Fullerton stations includes widening the northbound and southbound island platforms to accommodate more customers as well as to make room for elevators so that the stations will be accessible to customers with disabilities.
"Because the island platforms are each located in between two separate sets of tracks, widening the platforms requires that each set of tracks be moved farther apart. CTA will continue to provide service to the stations during track realignment by taking one set of tracks out of service at a time for construction, and maintaining service in the area on three tracks instead of four. Track realignment is scheduled at Belmont and at Fullerton late 2006 through 2008.
"Maneuvering on three tracks and keeping the Belmont and Fullerton stations open during construction will be possible because of the new crossovers and signals being installed between now and the end of the year."
The CTA is counting on those new crossovers to try and keep delays to a minimum as the CTA uses three tracks instead of four for three train lines. We'll see if that bet pays off or "bankrupts" CTA customers already threatening to fold their cards.
Wow, that's what Fullerton's supposed to look like when it's finished? In the words of Iggy Pop, "Christ, she's beautiful!"
Posted by: Charlotte | October 09, 2006 at 09:03 AM
24 MONTHS? you mean TWO years????
Posted by: jocelyn | October 09, 2006 at 10:41 AM
Why not leave the old station alone and just build the new one on the north side? Or is that too easy?
Posted by: Cheryl | October 09, 2006 at 10:48 AM
Eh, it looks kinda like a blandly-designed mall to me. But the strangest thing is it looks like you can see people standing on the platform through the skylights - that'll be nice for keeping the underside on Fullerton from being too dark, but won't a glass platform be a bit slippery (esp. in the winter)?! Surely I'm either misinterpreting the artist's rendering, or they've taken an odd artistic license with it. Are there any more renderings like this out there?
Posted by: Jim | October 09, 2006 at 11:29 AM
Gee, the temporary station at Fullerton looks about a thousand times better (That's my totally objective, scientific figure by the way...) in terms of design and finish than most other stations on the red and brown lines, especially when compared with architectural gems like Lawrence and Wellington.
Posted by: jared | October 09, 2006 at 11:32 AM
I didn't even notice the glass. I'm never wearing a skirt again.
Posted by: Cheryl | October 09, 2006 at 05:12 PM
I'm just thankful to the city of Chicago that my family and I won't be forever trapped on the blue and pink lines (the ones with multiple handicapped stations). We're forced to drive our car if we need to take the kids anywhere along the brown line, as the 1900 design was not made for the handicapped or those with small children in strollers.
Posted by: Jayson | October 09, 2006 at 07:41 PM