Metra opens expanded parking lot at Crystal Lake Pingree Road Station

Metra and community leaders marked the opening of expanded parking facilities at the Pingree Road Station on Metra's Union Pacific Northwest Line in Crystal Lake, Ill., during a ribbon-cutting ceremony Dec. 28.

The new lot will offer
parking for 338 more vehicles at a daily fee of $1.50. The station already had
400 spaces. Construction, which was funded through the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act, began in September and was completed this month. The project
cost a total of $574,900 and included four electronic payment boxes and
re-striping of the existing lot in addition to the new spaces.

Chicagoland Paving
Contractors Inc. of Lake Zurich, Ill., performed the work. The project, which
is complete except for landscaping of the parking islands and seeding, provided
jobs for 54 people.

Metra is receiving $140.9
million as its share of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
Other Metra projects that are being funded with these dollars include the
remanufacture of locomotives and bridge replacements, as well as station
additions and renovations.