Mayor Rahm Emanuel and CTA President Dorval R. Carter, Jr. today cut the ribbon on the Belmont Blue Gateway project, marking the completion of the largest project to date under Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s historic, $492 million Your New Blue (YNB) program to modernize and improve the O’Hare branch of the Blue Line.

“Improving Chicago’s infrastructure is critical to keep our city moving and growing,” said Mayor Emanuel. “As we continue to modernize our transit system to serve a world-class city for the 21st century, the CTA’s Belmont Blue Gateway Project has not only created another showcase station for residents, but also helped create good-paying jobs to ensure our future is even brighter than our past.”

As it does with all projects, CTA worked with its contractor on the Belmont project to promote a diverse and inclusive workforce. Thanks to those efforts, CTA exceeded project goals, attaining a 33.4 percent Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBE) rate by hiring 15 DBE subcontractors. This project also created over 200 jobs, with more than 89 of them being direct, on-site opportunities.

“This project, like the dozens of others completed by CTA under Mayor Emanuel, is more than just an investment in transit, it’s also an investment in the surrounding community,” said CTA President Dorval R. Carter, Jr. “This one investment has created new jobs and business opportunities, while also providing residents and visitors with a safer, modern, more efficient travel environment with a one-of-a-kind experience that is only available here in the Avondale community.”

Upgrades made as part of this $17 million project include the addition of a new architectural steel canopy for the terminal, designed by the Chicago architecture firm Carol Ross Barney. The canopy creates a community gateway for the station and local neighborhood, while also visually enhancing the street-level entrance to the subway station.

This modernization project represents the first major renovation to the facility since it opened nearly 50 years ago. Other project improvements include:

• Safer and modernized bus arrival and departure area– featuring new LED lighting, additional overhead heaters, repaved surface and new signage
• Permanent prepaid boarding area
• Enhanced communications systems, including new Bus and Train Tracker signs, and an upgraded public announcement (PA) system throughout
• New LED lighting and repainted surfaces throughout the rail station
• New concrete platform decking

The Belmont Transit Center is important transit hub on Chicago’s Northwest side, serving nearly 1.8 million entries to the Blue Line and providing connections to the heavily traveled #77 Belmont and #82 Kimball/Homan bus routes.

Belmont is the ninth of 14 stations to be renewed under the YNB program, and follows a number of other projects that are either completed or underway, including track and signal system improvements to increase service reliability for customers. YNB is the largest investment in the Blue Line since it was extended to O’Hare International Airport 30 years ago and is part of more than $8 billion of transit investment begun under Mayor Emanuel since 2011.

More project information can be found at http://www.transitchicago.com/yournewblue/.

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