CTA breaks ground on Red Line extension's first new station as federal funding threat remains unresolved
The CTA broke ground on the Red Line extension's first planned station in a star-studded media event Friday featuring ex-Chicago Bull Scottie Pippen.
Mayor Brandon Johnson and a cast of elected officials praised the project, saying it corrects a historical injustice to the rapid-transit-deprived Far South Side.
But federal funding cut threat from President Donald Trump's administration hung over the kickoff of the massive $5.7 billion L extension from 95th Street to 130th Street. The ceremony was held at 115th Street and Michigan Avenue, where one of four new stations will be built along that route.
The CTA nearly halted preparatory construction last month after the U.S. Department of Transportation froze $2 billion in grants to the project while it claimed to examine CTA hiring practices.
Former Chicago Bull Scottie Pippen at Friday’s groundbreaking ceremony to officially start construction on the Red Line Extension, a $5.7 billion project that would add four new stations and take that L line from its current endpoint at 95th Street to a new terminus at 130th.
Arthur Maiorella/For the Sun-Times
That money was unfrozen a month ago after the CTA took the administration to court and a federal judge in Chicago intervened.
But that court order is temporary. The judge won't rule until June on whether to release the funding permanently. The CTA expects work on the project to continue until the planned opening in 2030.
Johnson sidestepped the question when a reporter asked if he believes all federal funding will be released.
"Well, look, we can't predict the madness that's coming from the White House. What we can predict is our ability to fight back and win," Johnson said.
In his prepared remarks to the crowd, Johnson said Trump is targeting Democratic cities for funding cuts and alluded to the administration freezing funds due to the CTA's diversity requirements in selecting contractors.
The project will “demonstrate what it means to fight back against the Trump administration … because somehow he believes that investing in Black is a criminal act,” Johnson says.
The Red Line extension includes four planned stations near 103rd, 111th, 115th and 130th streets.
The mega project will create more than 12,500 construction jobs. When completed, it will make 25,000 jobs more accessible to those living on the Far South Side, CTA's acting boss Nora Leerhsen said. The train line should reduce commuting time to downtown by half an hour, she said.
Pippen attended the groundbreaking ceremony but did not speak. Pippen is an investor in one of the extension's subcontractors, Structure Re-Right, according to a CTA spokesperson.
Officials in Chicago have been talking about extending the Red Line farther south for nearly 60 years.
One of former CTA President Dorval Carter Jr.'s final acts before resigning last year was securing the $2 billion in federal funding for the project. In the weeks before Trump took back the White House, he held a signing ceremony for a legal document obligating the federal government to dispensing the funds.
But that didn't stop the U.S. Department of Transportation from freezing the money anyway last October. The White House said it was specifically targeting the Red Line extension “to ensure funding is not flowing via race-based contracting.”