THE LOOP — A new "L" stop under construction at Wabash Avenue and Washington Street will open by Labor Day, a city official says.
Transportation officials hope to open the new Downtown CTA station by the end of August with a Labor Day deadline in sight, said Susan Hofer, a spokeswoman for the Chicago Department of Transportation.
Unsightly scaffolding that has marred Jewelers Row for years during the "L" stop's construction will come down by the end of July, she said.
City officials project the new station will be the fifth busiest in the city once it opens. The station will serve the Brown, Orange, Purple, Pink and Green lines and replace two century-old stations nearby on Wabash.
City Hall said in 2015 that an estimated 13,000 riders would use the stop daily. The station's cost was pegged at $75 million then and is funded by the federal government.
A rendering of the new station. [City of Chicago]
Officials previously said that the station's undulating canopies weave "through the historic Wabash Avenue corridor as a counterpoint to the city grid, and anticipates the soft forms of the park and the lake beyond." The new stop's design also nods to Jeweler's Row with a steel-and-glass skeleton "designed to create a dynamic play of light reminiscent of diamond facets," the city said.
Scaffolding has been a familiar sight on Wabash since the station's construction started in 2015. [DNAinfo/David Matthews]
The station has been under construction since 2015, closing Loop streets and making the stores along Chicago's historic Jewelers Row less inviting. Some merchants said the station's construction forced them to close up shop on Wabash and move somewhere else.
But with a big new "L" stop coming soon, those fortunes may change.
The new station as seen from the Randolph/Wabash platform. The Randolph/Wabash stop will close once the new station opens. [DNAinfo/David Matthews]
Another rendering of the new station. [City of Chicago]
Another rendering of the new station. [City of Chicago]
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