Local businesses, residents demand that CTA figure out how to keep stations open during reconstruction
By Mary Corrado
Editor
The hot issues in Albany Park and Ravenswood involve the community's demand to somehow keep the Kimball, Kedzie, Francisco and Rockwell stations open during reconstruction, to create temporary station platforms for the at-grade stations during construction, and to provide a significant increase in permanent and temporary parking for riders. The North River Commission (NRC) co-hosted a CTA community meeting with Ald. Dick Mell (33rd), the Lawrence Avenue Development Corporation and the Albany Park Chamber of Commerce to discuss the Brown Line Reconstruction Project on Thursday, May 26, at 9:15 a.m. at Albany Bank, 3400 W. Lawrence Ave. Many political officials were on hand as well as owners of local businesses, residents and civic leaders. This meeting was a follow-up to a March 8 community meeting where over 80 business owners and residents attended to dialogue with CTA officials.
Counting both arrivals and departures, over 15,000 commuters use the four stations each day. Affected by any closures are six high schools and universities, including Northeastern Illinois University and North Park University. Due to the diversity of the densely occupied neighborhood, meeting notices were printed in English, Spanish, Korean, Arabic and Cambodian.
"We need the el too much to have the stations close even temporarily" was a recurrent theme at the meeting. "People here depend on the el. They buy homes, rent apartments, and choose to locate businesses here because of the el," said one resident. Seniors need each station open so they won't need to walk extra far, said another. "This is a low- and moderate-income neighborhood, so people really depend on the el. That's why Kimball has so many riders" — a total of 1,091,477 entering through turnstiles each year, and presumably just as many exiting through non-counting gates. Local residents cannot afford cars, so they must not be denied access to the el for transportation, explained one attendee.
GOALS OF RECONSTRUCTION
Teresa Mintle, general manager for government and community relations for CTA, and John Dalton, general manager of capital construction for CTA, reminded the crowd of some 80 attendees of the goals of the Brown Line reconstruction: to increase ridership capacity by extending 18 stations to accommodate trains with eight cars and not just six; and to make all stations handicapped accessible. When the original project bids came in $152 million over the planned budget, the CTA had to cut in any way they could find: reduce materials cost; reduce real estate takings; cut back on the signal work; reduce the extent of power substation work; eliminate any improvements which would have had a minimal impact anyway; and so on.
When the cost was still too high, they decided the only answer was to close stations during the reconstruction work, which translates into several months of being closed. "We asked the bidders, why were your bids so much higher than we expected? What did you see that would be so costly to you? And they said that it was 'keeping the stations open during reconstruction,'" said Mintle. To keep it open calls for a temporary shelter, temporary electrical conduits, temporary stairs, and so on, plus the interruption of work every time a train comes through. This cost was especially unacceptable when one looks at the short distances between stations, especially these four grade level stations, she said.
The Brown Line Project has a fixed budget and a fixed time frame. There is an overall savings by having individual station closures, said the CTA representatives.
PROBLEMS
The group was apprehensive about the problems that will accompany reconstruction. There will be economic and real estate upheaval, predicted one opponent of the closures. What's going to happen to all those riders who usually use Kimball — the end of the line — or the three adjoining stations? They'll walk or be driven or take a bus to stations still open, responded CTA. But that means there will be many cars circling side streets, looking for unfamiliar stations and hunting scarce parking, making the current congestion far worse, others objected. The existing permit parking near the Western station will not help the situation of drivers trying to find a spot. Kimball is wide and at least has 50 parking spots, pointed out one resident, but if you send riders to Kedzie, where it's narrow, without parking, and already congested, you'll have a nightmare, warned another man. The closures will cause devaluation of real estate in the area, claimed one man who manages apartments in the area, full of renters who walk to the train stations.
"Temporary closure sounds like an inconvenience, but for small businesses, it may close them down and that's permanent," said Melissa Esquibel, president of the Albany Park Chamber of Commerce. Indeed, the Lawrence Avenue Development Corporation (LADCOR) conducted a study of 100 businesses along the Brown Line, and all believed they would be affected by the closures, and some believed they would be closed down completely. "Some already plan to move to a different el line or to a different neighborhood — it's already having an impact," Charles Daas, executive director of the North River Commission, told Inside. "If you're a retailer, or you have a condo to sell, or you own a building to rent, it's a big problem. And it's already congested, and more traffic will make it worse." Economically, the business strip along the Green Line has never recovered from its closure, Daas added, saying it's urgent that the Brown Line not have closures.
WHY US AND NOT THEM?
The CTA was pressed to explain why Belmont, Fullerton and Western will remain open during construction, yet Kimball has to close to save money. Belmont and Fullerton serve multiple lines, and have a substantially greater number of customers; for example, counting platform cross-overs, Belmont has over nine million a year, said Mintle. Western actually has fewer customers entering and exiting than Kimball does, but it will remain open because there would be no cost saving in closing it. This is because Western is already handicapped accessible, being a relatively new station built in the 1970s, and the only work needed is to add length to the platform, which can be done away from customer traffic.
SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS
One way CTA is attempting to ease the upheaval is that Kimball and Kedzie will NOT close simultaneously on weekdays. The stations, from west to east, are Kimball, Kedzie, Francisco and Rockwell. They will close in pairs such that no two adjacent stations are closed at the same time on weekdays. First, Kedzie and Rockwell will both close for six to eight months. During this time a permanent secondary entrance to Kedzie will be added on Spaulding. Then, these stations will both open and Francisco and Kimball will close: Francisco for 6-8 months and Kimball for 4-6 months. The extra entrance on Spaulding will shorten the walk to the Kedzie platform from Kimball, which is one reason that Kedzie is being reconstructed before Kimball.
In addition to the above closings, each pair of stations will have five weekends of being closed, in effect giving contractors ten weekends of no train or customer traffic to contend with. (When the Kedzie Rockwell pair is closed for an extended time, the Kimball Francisco pair will have five weekends closed during that time, shutting off that stretch of the Brown Line, and vice versa.)
Buses will not be re-routed, due to the narrowness of side streets and the fact that the noise and fumes would be quite unwelcome; in addition, the CTA perceives the current routes as adequate. CTA will not add more buses to existing routes until a need is demonstrated. It will "aggressively monitor" bus routes 81 (Lawrence), 82 (Kimball-Homan) and 93 (North California), which are currently under capacity, and will "quickly" add buses to these routes if needed. In addition, if patrons take buses to the Blue Line or Red Line and overcrowd them, CTA promises to address those Lines to help manage the flow.
The CTA promised to keep the 50-car parking lot at Kimball as a parking lot even during construction. This is critical because parking is already past the saturation point in Albany Park. The community was promised 180 spots by CTA 15 years ago, but was only provided 100 spots: 50 at Kimball and 50 at Kedzie. Those at Kedzie are slated to be eliminated when affordable senior housing is built on that spot. At this point the CTA is promising to protect the 50 at Kimball, but there are no clear plans for increasing that number despite the community's urgent plea.
DEMANDING TEMPORARY STATIONS
"No one is arguing that we don't want improved el stations. We're not fighting reconstruction, we're fighting to keep stations open during reconstruction," said Charles Daas, executive director of the North River Commission.
The attendees insisted that Kimball must be kept open, that money to pay the extra cost must be found by the CTA. Would it be possible to close Sedgwick or other stations [further down the Brown Line] for longer periods of time and maybe save money that way to enable the CTA to keep Kimball open? Would it be possible to go to the state and ask for the specific amount needed to keep Kimball open? Here the CTA said they could not reveal their estimates for various costs because it would jeopardize the closed bid process. And, "it could jeopardize the entire agreement if CTA initiated such a request." Whether or not government representatives such as Sen. Barack Obama, Sen. Dick Durbin, state Rep. John Fritchey, state Rep. Rich Bradley, or Congressman Rahm Emmanuel would be able or willing to ask for additional funds was left unclear. However, the legal staff of CTA is advising CTA President Frank Kruesi not to accept any such funds if they are made available. |
