DOWNTOWN — The CTA’s State and Lake station will close Monday — and will remain closed for at least three years — for the construction of a new glass-covered station.
The elevated station will remain closed until 2029, when the new station is anticipated to open to the public, the CTA announced in December. Green, Brown, Orange, Pink and Purple line trains will not make stops at State and Lake during the duration of construction.
The Red Line’s Lake subway station will remain open during the project, and riders of the other elevated lines are asked to use the fully accessible stations at Washington and Wabash and at Clark and Lake while State and Lake is closed, according to the CTA.
Work on the station, which kicked off in earnest in August, will also cause temporary road closures starting Monday. Lake Street will be limited to local traffic only near the station once it closes Monday, CTA said in an announcement.
Work will take place from 7 a.m.-4 p.m. and from 9 p.m.-5 a.m. daily, with overnight work limited to decommission and demolishing the existing station.
A rendering of the renovation planned for the CTA’s signature State/Lake station Downtown. Credit: CDOT
The State and Lake station — built in 1895 as part of the Loop’s original “L” — has visibly aging features and narrow confines.
The new station will include new ADA-compliant elevators, wider platforms, expanded entries and exits, brighter lighting and an overarching glass canopy that will frame views of Downtown from the elevated tracks.
The new elevators will directly connect street-level entrances to the underground Red Line station and the elevated State/Lake platforms.
On the street level, the city also plans to remove columns and increase the vertical clearance to try to ease vehicle traffic. New sidewalk bump-outs will make crossing the busy Downtown streets a shorter walk for pedestrians.
The price of the project has ballooned from the $180 million estimated by city officials in 2021 to $444 million. The project is over 90 percent federally funded.
It is the fifth-highest ridership station in the system and located at one of the busiest transfer points in the Loop.
State and Lake will be the latest CTA station to get a modern overhaul. Four Red Line stations in Edgewater and Uptown opened over the summer after a four-year rebuild effort.
The Green Line’s newly created Damen station near the United Center opened in August 2024 after years of delays.
Mack Liederman contributed reporting.
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