Metra and Alderman Gene Schulter (47th) are pleased to announce that Metra is ready to move forward with building a bigger and better Ravenswood Station at its current location on the Union Pacific North Line. The station overhaul is part of a major $185-million project to replace 22 bridges on the line.

The new station will offer longer, covered platforms, warming shelters, improved lighting, landscaping, a ticket office, vendor space, ramps and stairs. It will be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The project to rebuild the 22 aging bridges on the north side of Chicago between Fullerton and Balmoral was announced last month. As part of that announcement, Metra said the project would include a new Ravenswood Station, but it did not finalize the precise location until recently.

The location was determined after considerable consultation with Ald. Schulter and the affected community. Ald. Schulter coordinated community meetings to keep the residents of Ravenswood informed about the plans for this project.  In addition, he and Metra met individually with residents to discuss specific concerns. As a result of these meetings, it was decided that the redevelopment of the current platforms into a full Metra station best met the needs of the neighborhood.

The first phase of the bridge construction project includes 11 bridges between Grace and Balmoral. The plan calls for closing the west (outbound) track and rebuilding the west half of each bridge while the east (inbound) track handles both inbound and outbound trains. After the west bridges are complete in 2012, all traffic will switch to the new west track while the east track is closed and the east half of each bridge is rebuilt. That work will be finished in 2014. 

Construction of the new Ravenswood Station, the only stop in the construction zone and the busiest stop on the line, will begin later this year or early next year. Because the existing station cannot be used while it is being rebuilt, a temporary boarding platform is being constructed just north of Lawrence. The temporary platform will be used by both inbound and outbound passengers, since the UP North Line is being reduced to a single track in the construction zone.

The work on the new station will concentrate on the west platform during the first two years, so that platform will be ready for use when trains switch to the new west bridges in 2012. From 2012 to 2014, inbound and outbound passengers will share the new west platform until work on the east bridges is completed in 2014. Work will then shift to the 11 remaining bridges to the south, between Fullerton and Cornelia. That work will take another four years, until 2018, and will also require UP North trains to use a single track in that stretch.