Red and Purple Modernization (RPM) Phase One — Chicago Transit Authority

CTA’s biggest capital project ever hit substantial completion on July 1, 2026.

Red and Purple Modernization Phase One rebuilt just over two miles of 100-year-old elevated structure between Lawrence and Bryn Mawr, replaced four stations, and untangled a track conflict at Belmont that had throttled throughput on three lines for decades. The Walsh-Fluor Design-Build Team delivered it, with Stantec leading design. Contract value: $2.1 billion.

Project Scope

Four stations rebuilt from the ground up as fully accessible facilities: Lawrence, Argyle, Berwyn and Bryn Mawr. All four opened to riders in summer 2025.

The Red-Purple Bypass at Belmont is the piece engineers care about. Brown Line trains now cross the Red and Purple mainline on a new elevated flyover instead of merging at grade. The old junction forced trains from three lines to wait on each other, and it capped how many Red Line trains CTA could run north of Belmont regardless of demand.

Crews also installed 11 miles of new digital track-circuit signaling. That adds capacity today and sets up future signal and rolling-stock upgrades.

All of it happened while the corridor kept carrying passengers.

Why It Matters

Federal money made it possible: a $957 million Core Capacity Full Funding Grant Agreement from the FTA, signed in January 2017, alongside a dedicated Transit TIF from the City of Chicago. It’s one of the largest Core Capacity awards the program has made.

Final completion is scheduled for November 2026. The bypass is what turns two miles of new steel into actual capacity, and it will take a service-level change before riders feel it.

Project Team & Details