METRA UPDATE: 80th Ave. Platform Will Get Squeezed in February

Commuters who take the Metra out of the 80th Avenue station will have a tighter squeeze for a week in February.

So Metra can install a metal retaining wall for , a 60-foot stretch of the inbound platform will be cut down to four-and-a-half feet instead of the current seven-foot width, Public Works Director Dale Schepers told the village board’s Public Works and Boundaries Committee meeting Tuesday night.

The exact start time is up to Metra and the weather, but the width will be cut for about a week in early February, Schepers said.

This means the already-crowded platform of the Metra system’s fourth-busiest station will be squeezed a little tighter in either the first or second week of February. To see the plans, click here or look at the pdfs to the right of this article.

As the doors on Metra trains are 83 feet apart, conductors will try to aim the trains so no doors open in the middle of the 60-foot reduced stretch.

“Metra’s operations say they can stop the train so the doors can open on either end,” Schepers said.

Getting the word out to the 2,500 commuters who use the station each day is key, Village Manager Scott Niehaus said. The information is posted in the station and on the village’s website, as well as in the village’s e-mail blitz and an e-mail sent to riders who signed up for notice of construction news.