EDGEWATER — The long-promised new Metra station near Ravenswood and Peterson avenues is set to break ground in 2020, Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th) said.
The new Peterson Ridge Metra station was first announced in 2013. Construction on the project was initially supposed to begin in 2015, but has been delayed repeatedly. The station will be a new stop on the Union Pacific North Line.
“People have been talking about this for close to a decade. Well, it’s coming,” Vasquez said at a town hall meeting last week. “I’m sure it’s not the first time someone has told you that, I’m sure every year you’ve heard it. But we have gotten dates from Metra and Union Pacific on when they’re moving forward.”
The latest timeline has construction starting in spring of 2020 and taking about a year to complete.
In 2009, Metra intended to fund construction of both the new Peterson Ridge station and a new station in Auburn Gresham near 79th Street on the Rock Island Line with its share of proceeds from two state bond programs. The funding was held up then eventually cut until the state restored the funding in April 2019.
Now funding for both stations has been restored and the state is giving Metra $15 million for Peterson Ridge and $20 million for Auburn Park stations.
“We’re looking at having up to 75 parking spaces there,” Vasquez said of the North Side station. “Because obviously the concern is if everyone using that transportation and taking up parking spots, we want to make sure neighbors have parking.”
The construction of the new station is set to include an elevated platform and station house located between Peterson and Ridge avenues.
There will also be a small number of handicapped parking spaces to the north of Peterson, in a new plaza that will be put in where the current embankment sits, according to Vasquez’s office.
“At that intersection we’re going to see a whole new setup,” Vasquez said.
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