Washington/Wabash Station Build

[Tcmetro]

CMAQ Committee is recommending $57 million for State/Lake. Project budget is $120 million. 

http://www.cmap.illinois.gov/documents/10180/607032/PSC_memo_July13.pdf/8773bf74-b4db-45cd-940b-07f30cdbc380

[juelzkellz]

10 minutes ago, Juniorz said:

 

The station I'd worry about is LaSalle/Vanburen.

 

I could see LaSalle/Van Buren being torn down. It's practically right next to Library/State-Vanburen, It's a dump, and it's practically empty every time I go past that station in the loop.

[Busjack]

32 minutes ago, juelzkellz said:

I could see LaSalle/Van Buren being torn down. It's practically right next to Library/State-Vanburen, It's a dump, and it's practically empty every time I go past that station in the loop.

Question though is that it is promoted as the transfer point for LaSalle  St. (Metra) Station, via Financial Place.

You and @strictures get me to the point that CTA said all stations will be accessible, but besides the 3 on the Loop L needing to be addressed, the RPM has to be  built, as well as most of the Blue Line or its stations.

[Johnny 5]

... Actually, the real date for the grand opening is this Thursday, August 31st by the start of the morning rush. I checked out some posted signs at Quincy the other day. 

[strictures]

15 hours ago, juelzkellz said:

I could see LaSalle/Van Buren being torn down. It's practically right next to Library/State-Vanburen, It's a dump, and it's practically empty every time I go past that station in the loop.

One reason it's empty is that it no longer has a direct connection to LaSalle St. Station. It was once easy to get there, just go down to the mezzanine & walk right into the headhouse. Now you go all the way downstairs & have to walk a block & then go back upstairs in each direction. Why not build a mezzanine level enclosed connection on one side to the Board of Trade's new building & make it easy for people. My guess is after all that, people just take a bus or walk it now.

[Busjack]

52 minutes ago, strictures said:

My guess is after all that, people just take a bus or walk it now

If you take a bus, directions are to walk to Jackson. There at least were buses going to Wells-Harrison, but they weren't serving LaSalle station.

Quincy is another "transfer to Metra," even though it is a couple of blocks and a river crossing away, but it must have enough business to justify making it accessible now.

[BusHunter]

20 hours ago, geneking7320 said:

Will CTA retain the State/Lake 'L' station or demolish it?

Early plans called for State/lake to be demolished when Washington/Wabash opened but it had alot of opposition and they backed away from that plan, so they wanted to demolish it, but now it seems they want to restore it now according to TCMetro's link. Not being accessible at State/Lake is weak for the north loop Red line customers with disabilities if they wanted to transfer to the loop elevated, they have to go to Roosevelt for a free transfer or travel in the loop for a couple blocks for a paid transfer (best transfer is State/Lake subway to Clark/Lake)

I'm kind of surprised it took them this long to put an accessible stop on the Wabash side, because you have some the bigger attractions to the east like Millennium Park and Grant Park, The taste and all the other festivals. No accessibility for them?

Now they are working on the secondary stations like State/Lake or Quincy. They do need some kind of Lasalle street station link, but I think Adams/Wabash is a more important stop just due to it's transfer abilities. Which leads me to a question. Why doesn't CTA put ramps in place at all stations not just accessible ones. If someone wanted to transfer at Adams/Wabash they can't.

[strictures]

1 hour ago, BusHunter said:

They do need some kind of LaSalle Street Station link, but I think Adams/Wabash is a more important stop just due to it's transfer abilities. Which leads me to a question. Why doesn't CTA put ramps in place at all stations not just accessible ones. If someone wanted to transfer at Adams/Wabash they can't.

Up to the end of the North Shore Line in 1963, there was a connection to the Outer Loop platform at Adams/Wabash through a building on the east side of Wabash. But I don't know if it had an elevator.

[BusHunter]

3 minutes ago, strictures said:

Up to the end of the North Shore Line in 1963, there was a connection to the Outer Loop platform at Adams/Wabash through a building on the east side of Wabash. But I don't know if it had an elevator.

Speaking of platform connections, you know the entrance that someone spoke of to Marshall Field's at Randolph/Wabash? If you look up at the window there on the sw corner of the stationhouse there is still a green awning there. I think that may be one of the last Field's awnings in existence. I thought they might have had some kind of curtain over the east mezzanine wall but last week when I was over there it looked torn like someone removed it.

[cta5658]

I've watched the Washington/Wabash progress and they're starting to add the Tactile Edge on the western end of the station platform

[strictures]

2 hours ago, BusHunter said:

Speaking of platform connections, you know the entrance that someone spoke of to Marshall Field's at Randolph/Wabash? If you look up at the window there on the sw corner of the stationhouse there is still a green awning there. I think that may be one of the last Field's awnings in existence. I thought they might have had some kind of curtain over the east mezzanine wall but last week when I was over there it looked torn like someone removed it.

I think that was me. The entrance was through the fine china department. I was always amazed no one carrying bags of Field's goods never broke anything. I used it a lot & was there when the new station house was opened in 1963.

[BusHunter]

Here's probably the final video on construction for Washington/Wabash. (Randolph/Wabash added also) Slated to open in a few days. (I'll upload an opening video though) They are taking care of the last of the work. The canopy is being installed, it's glass and delicate. Probably they were worried it would break during construction. I panned up for a few seconds so we could see it. The train tracker signs are going up, in fact they are working already. Still have to take off the shipping screen protectors though. The tactile edging was installed. For the most part the station is finished.

 

[Busjack]

Tribune has an architect's view of the station.

[Johnny 5]

Here's my video of the station tour taken from the first day of opening. CTA New Washington and Wabash Station Tour.3gp

[Busjack]

16 minutes ago, Johnny 5 said:

Here's my video of the station tour taken from the first day of opening. CTA New Washington and Wabash Station Tour.3gp

I got an error message when  clicking on the  link: ""We could not locate the item you are trying to view.'

[Johnny 5]

Oops! Let me try again. Here:

Sometimes, the upload does not seem to work if I selected a file that's outside the File Manager on my phone. E.g. "Dropbox."

CTA_New_Washington_and_Wabash_Station_Tour.3gp

[Busjack]

3 hours ago, Johnny 5 said:

Oops! Let me try again. Here:

Sometimes, the upload does not seem to work if I selected a file that's outside the File Manager on my phone. E.g. "Dropbox."

CTA_New_Washington_and_Wabash_Station_Tour.3gp

The one thing that was significant then  but no longer was that Randolph-Washington  was already out of the system  and the operators had to announce it.

@Johnny 5: While I was able to view it, you should message someone  like @BusHunter to see if it would be better to load this on YouTube and how to do it. It took me  about  3 minutes on an Android (30 mbps) to download it, and then  it  asked if I wanted to open it with the photo or video viewer.

[BusHunter]

I'm happy someone is uploading shots of these stations. I'm probably going to have to miss this week (or squeeze it in somewhere) I'm really busy this week. (Buying a almost new car in ohio, picking it up tomorrow)

[Busjack]

Channel surfing, I came across a Channel 2 story that someone was complaining that an elevator and escalator at the Washington-Wabash station weren't working (web version).

[artthouwill]

On 8/15/2017 at 0:01 AM, Juniorz said:

That's it!

August 30th is the grand finale for Randolph/Wabash!

The Future begins on August 31st at Washington/Wabash!

Washington/Wabash is in the news  for a bad reason.  A cell phone robbery occurred Monday night with an 81 year old man being the victim.  He's  fighting for his life after being pushed down the stairs to street level.

[strictures]

I used the new station for the first time last Thursday & what a wretched design it it.  It was raining & the way they designed & built the angled canopy where the benches are was soaking wet, because the canopy didn't cover the benches.  I really wonder why the architects are so lacking in the basics of what a shelter is supposed to do.  But then we're stuck with those even worse bus shelters designed by NYC's most famous & more importantly, most incompetent architect, Robert A.M. Stern, who inflicted shelters on Chicago that have huge gaps for the wind to blow through.  They were then built here by Chicago Scenic Studios, which mostly does movie & TV sets.  They said they built them to the specs & blame the architect, not them!