Construction Begins on Metra’s Two-Year Homewood Station Project

Written by Kyra Senese, Managing Editor
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Tie work will delay UP-NW trains by 30 minutes.
David C. Lester

Metra has begun a two-year construction project at its Homewood Station. The tunnel on the east side of the train station in suburban Homewood, Illinois, has been closed by the commuter rail system that serves Chicago and its suburbs.

The station is being renovated for $14.5 million, which will influence where commuters board and deboard trains, according to a report by The Times of Northwest Indiana. During the next two years, Metra Electric Line and Amtrak passengers will need to park and board on the west side of the station at the Park Avenue entrance.

Homewood and Metra received a $9.25 million federal grant to help fund the project, which also received local match funding from the Regional Transit Authority, Cook County, and Pace. Metra contracted with Elgin-based IHC Construction to complete the work, the Times reported. 

The planned work part of the Metra Electric Community Intitiative, which aims to refurbish 13 stations on Chicago’s South Side and suburbs, including making them more accessible. 

On the east side of the train station, workers will construct a new, ADA-accessible headhouse. In the 122-year-old tunnel, crews will install drainage, ventilation, lighting, and interior finishes. It will include a new elevator that will connect the tunnel to the platform. The platform, warming house, gatehouse and windbreaks will all be renovated, according to the Times. 

Amtrak recently invested on its portion of the station, including the construction of an enclosed ramp on the west side of the tracks and ADA-related improvements to the former Illinois Central Railroad Station, which was built about 100 years ago.

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