After a decades-long process, a project that aims to transform Chicago’s transit landscape is underway.
The Chicago Transit Authority, alongside the Walsh-Vinci Transit Community Partners joint venture, broke ground on the Red Line Extension on April 24, according to an announcement from Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.
The 5.5 mile-long extension project, which costs $5.7 billion according to a 2025 estimate, will extend rapid rail transit into the city’s Far South Side for the first time. It will provide more direct access to the 24-hour Red Line, also known as the L, according to the announcement.
The Windy City tapped the JV, made up of Chicago-based builder Walsh Construction and French contractor Vinci, as the design-build contractor in 2024.
The extension will start at the 95th Street Terminal and extend to the vicinity of 130th Street, with four stations at 103rd Street, 111th Street, Michigan Avenue near 116th Street and 130th Street. Each station will include bus, bike, pedestrian and parking facilities.
Additionally, the construction team will build a new rail yard and related rail facilities near 120th Street, according to the news release.
Work is already underway — contractors have demolished properties that were acquired to build the extension and relocated utility poles and other equipment in the new track’s path. This spring, the construction team will drill where track columns will go and pour concrete to make way for new track foundations and columns.
Overall, the Red Line Extension is projected to create more than 12,500 construction jobs, according to the announcement. The team plans to start station construction in 2027, per the announcement.
Getting to this point has been a challenge. Already more than half a century in the making, Chicago and the state of Illinois were waylaid last October by the federal government after President Donald Trump’s administration blocked more than $2 billion in funding to the Red Line Extension and the Red and Purple Modernization, another Chicago transit project, over a fight around diversity and inclusion programs.
The city filed suit against the federal government in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on March 17. On March 26, the court ordered the U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Transit Administration to resume payments to the Red Line Extension and the Red and Purple Modernization.
