Still no timeline for Yellow Line reopening

An aerial look at the track erosion that has the CTA Yellow Line suspended and portions of McCormick Drive closed to traffic. | Courtesy ABC-7 Chicago

(Chicago) Almost four weeks after the CTA’s Yellow Line was shut down when an embankment eroded in Skokie, the transit agency still has no idea when service might resume, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.

Last week, on June 3, the agency had said it was waiting to receive a repair plan from the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, but that the plan “could” be received by the end of last week.

Apparently, the CTA is still waiting.

Asked Friday morning — more than a week later — for an update on the situation, CTA spokesman Jeff Tolman issued this statement: “The CTA is still working with MWRD to develop a schedule. The plan has not yet been finalized.”

At a CTA board meeting on Wednesday, new CTA President Dorval Carter J., had described the restoration work as “fairly complex.”

“This is something that’s not going to get done in a couple of weeks,” he told reporters following his first CTA Board meeting since being named chief. “I don’t want to put a timeline on when it’s going to be ready, until we finish the work with our architects and engineers. … In the next week or so, we should be coming out with some more definitive information.”

The Yellow Line runs from the Howard stop on the Purple and Red lines to Dempster Street in Skokie, with a stop in-between at Oakton. While rail service has been suspended, passengers can take shuttle buses through the affected area or use the No. 97 Skokie bus as an alternative, according to the transit agency.

Service was halted on May 17 after the ground gave way under the tracks during a Metropolitan Water Reclamation District construction project. The site of the erosion is near McCormick Boulevard in Skokie, about halfway between the Oakton and Howard stops. According to the CTA, the tracks are no longer stable.

The MWRD, its contractor and the CTA are all working to restore service, the transit agency has said, but it has declined to identify the contractor who had been working on the embankment at the time of the collapse.

The CTA estimates about 2,900 commuters per day use the Yellow Line between Chicago and Skokie.