EDGEWATER — Construction of the new Edgewater Metra station at Peterson Avenue won't begin until 2016, pushing back the opening date to 2017, according to a Metra spokesman.
A preliminary timetable released in 2013 had construction of the $15 million station beginning this year.
Metra spokesman Michael Gillis said the project's scope was expanded to include work on the railroad bridges over Peterson and Ridge avenues "to extend the life of those bridges."
"It just makes sense to do that at the same time as the station project," he said.
Ben Woodard says it's a highly anticipated project:
He said evaluation of what needed to be done on the bridges — and approval by Union Pacific, which owns the railway — "took some time last year," delaying the project.
The Metra Board of Directors also approved Wednesday the purchase of two parcels, from Union Pacific and from the Chicago Housing Authority, where the station would be located, for a combined $2.45 million.
Gillis said 90 percent of design and environmental review was completed and should be wrapped up this summer.
The project would then go out for bid with construction targeted to begin in 2016. The station should open about a year later, Gillis said.
The station will be the fourth overall stop on the Union Pacific North line coming from Ogilvie Transportation Center in the West Loop. As of now, non-express trains stop at Clybourn, Ravenswood and Rogers Park within the city. Since Metra was formed in 1984, it has not added a station to the line.
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