CTA 'Belmont Flyover' Just Got Bigger

Artist’s rendering showing the Red-Purple bypass over Sheffield. | CTA

The proposed fix to ease a rail bottleneck by shooting the Brown Line over the El tracks in Lake View just got bigger.

The CTA expanded its controversial aerial bypass project from $320 million to $570 million, according to a CTA environmental analysis acquired by the Chicago Tribune.

According to the project specs, the aerial bypass structure, rising 40 to 45 feet above the ground, north of the Belmont station, where the Red, Brown and Purple/Evanston Express lines intersect at Clark junction, the paper said.

The CTA’s overhaul of the Red and Purple line modernization project costs an estimated $4.7 billion. The CTA has not yet secured the funding for the expanded flyover but to avoid it even costing more due to inflation, work must start by 2017, the Tribune says.

The transit agency says the flyover is necessary to increase train capacity, reduce passenger travel times and improve safety at one of the worst bottlenecks along the line.

The CTA has already warned neighborhood residents to brace themselves for dust, noise and vibration for the projected four-year project.

The project has its share of detractors who refer to the Brown Line flyover as a roller coaster. Seventy-two percent of voters in the three precincts in the 44th ward voted overwhelmingly against the project, according to the Coalition to Stop the Flyover.

Meanwhile, residents are loving the new Wilson Transit station in Uptown, which has moved along at a fast clip.

Read the full story in the Tribune.

Visit the Coalition to Stop the Flyover to learn more about the “uncoupling the roller coaster.”