Mayor Emanuel, CDOT and CTA Announce Critical Federal Funding Is Secured for New State and Lake Train Station
October 12, 2017
Project Will Deliver a Modern, Fully-Accessible Station in the Loop
Mayor’s Press Office 312.744.3334
press@cityofchicago.org
Mayor Rahm Emanuel today announced a major step forward in plans to reconstruct and modernize the CTA ‘L’ station at State and Lake Streets, with the approval of a $56.9 million federal grant for design and construction of a new, fully accessible elevated station to serve passengers on five rail lines from all corners of the city.
Today’s approval of a federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program (CMAQ) grant by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) will allow CDOT to accelerate work in collaboration with the CTA to launch the design process for a new station.
“The CTA hub at State and Lake is an iconic location in the heart of Chicago and it deserves a state-of-the-art station,” Mayor Emanuel said. “This project has been talked about for more than a decade, and now we are moving forward on plans to rebuild this station and ensure a modern and reliable transit system for Chicago’s residents.”
The new State/Lake station will be a modern, fully accessible station with wider platforms, built to 21st Century design standards, consistent with the new Washington/Wabash station. The newly announced federal funding is in addition to existing design funding of $5.5 million. It will not cover the full cost of construction, however, and the City plans to seek additional federal funding for construction.
“We are pleased to move closer to providing our customers with yet another new, modern station that is fully accessible and is an important part of our goal of enhancing public transit in Chicago,” CTA President Dorval R. Carter, Jr. said. “We thank CMAP for their support of this project, and look forward to working with our partners at CDOT on this transformational project.”
“CDOT greatly appreciates today’s decision by CMAP to prioritize this critically important project,” CDOT Commissioner Rebekah Scheinfeld said. “This allocation of funding allows us to step up the design process. As one of the City’s busiest transfer points, State/Lake is critically important for CTA capacity, safety and the economy of the Central Business District. This project will benefit riders coming from all corners of the city.”
The current State/Lake station was originally built in 1895, and last year was the second-busiest station on the Loop ‘L’, with more than 3.1 million annual entries.
State/Lake is a second CTA elevated project that CDOT is currently working on for the CTA, in addition to the Damen/Green station that is in design phase. The work on the new stations comes on the heels of the opening of three new stations under Mayor Emanuel: the new Washington/Wabash station in August; a new station at Morgan to serve the Green and Pink Lines in 2012 and the new Cermak-McCormick Place Green Line station in 2015.
The full cost of the new station will not be determined until the design process progresses, but it is expected that it will exceed the construction cost of the new station at Washington/Wabash of $75 million.
CDOT, which will manage the project for the CTA, expects to issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) before the end of the year for design services for Phases 1 and 2 of the new station, moving the City towards setting a timetable for construction.