UIC students can expect a newly renovated CTA station-just in time for summer break.
The UIC-Halsted Blue Line stop is undergoing a $16 million renovation, which includes adding an elevator to the Peoria Street entrance, one of three entrances to the Near West Side stop.
The work on the stop, which sees about 8,000 station entries on a typical weekday, is expected to be completed in late May, said Guy Tridgell, a spokesman with the Illinois Department of Transportation, which is overseeing the project.
The renovation of the CTA stop, which is next to the Eisenhower Expressway, is part of IDOT's $420 million project to improve the Jane Byrne Interchange, where the Eisenhower, Kennedy and Dan Ryan expressways merge.
IDOT is reconstructing nine bridges that cross over the expressway system. The Morgan Street bridge reopened to traffic earlier this month.
Tridgell said IDOT has pushed back work completion dates because of delays in working with utility companies, which affected both Morgan Street and Peoria Street construction.
Tridgell said May has always been the UIC-Halsted station completion date.
The Peoria Street entrance of the station has been closed to CTA riders since June. The Morgan Street and Halsted Street entrances are open during construction. The Morgan Street entrance previously was closed from September 2013, when the project began, until June.
Some students may not get to experience the newly renovated CTA station until the 2015 school year. Final exams for the UIC spring semester are in early May. Summer session begins in late May.