Metra breaks ground for new South Side station
Metra breaks ground for new South Side station
BY WENDELL HUTSON, Contributing Writer
After 10 years of planning, Metra finally broke ground on Monday for a new, $20 million station in Auburn Gresham.
The long awaited project at 79th Street and Lowe Avenue was first conceived by former Alderman Latasha Thomas (17th) and later spearheaded by state Sen. Jacqueline Collins (D-16th) and state Representative Mary Flowers (31st) in the Illinois Legislature; U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush (1st) in Congress; Ald. David Moore (17th) in City Council; and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.
“I’m excited and hopeful that the Auburn Park Metra Station will be more than an added convenience for consumers but rather a key part of economic renaissance for this hard hit area,” said Collins. “This station is also a crucial step in the direction of equalizing infrastructure investments across all communities.”
Metra contractor, T.Y. Lin International Inc., has completed about 60 percent of the design phase and expects to be finished by December 2019, according to Jim Derwinski, CEO and executive director of Metra. Upon completion, Derwinski said Metra would then solicit bids from general contractors to start the construction phase with a goal of opening the new station within a year.
The closest Metra station to the pending Auburn Park station is one mile away at 87th and Halsted Street and that can be a “hike’ for 32 year-old Wendy Silver.
“I moved to Auburn Gresham three years ago but I did not do my homework and learn more about the neighborhood,” explained Silver. “I have two small kids and I have to drop them off at the daycare before I go to work, which is a constant struggle for me.”
Preckwinkle said more South Side and south suburban stations are needed and the county is prepared to put its “money on the table to help make this happen by subsidizing more stations.”
Thomas was on hand to participate in the groundbreaking, a project that first began under her watch as alderman.
“I am still a part of this community and will remain a supporter of the 17th Ward,” Thomas told the Chicago Citizen. “Today is a wonderful day because something that was started years ago has finally come to fruition, and for that I am very grateful.”
The new station is personal for Carlos Nelson, CEO of the nonprofit Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corporation, whose office is a little over a mile away from the upcoming station. Nelson said growing up, he’d “always hear this big train (Metra Rock Island) zipping past every so often, never knowing where it was going. All I knew is that this loud train would ride pass my community and not stop. Well, those days are over. Now, when I hear that train coming, I know it will stop right here in Auburn Gresham.”
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