Brookpark Rapid Station construction will close pedestrian tunnel for a year

 

By Alison Grant, The Plain Dealer

 

BROOK PARK, Ohio -- Construction begins next week on the replacement Brookpark Rapid Station, and with it, some changes for passengers getting on and off trains there.

 

RTA contractors will begin demolishing the tunnel that connects the rapid stop's east parking lot to its west lot on Monday. So starting next week, if you park in the east lot you'll have to walk around the building and along Brookpark Road to get to the stairway and elevator to the rail platform, which are off the west lot.

 

RTA has installed stairs, underpass lights and a wooden barrier along the sidewalk to protect customers from vehicles and highway splashing as they walk around the building to get to the west lot. The new sidewalk will be in use throughout construction, which is scheduled to wrap up in mid-2016.

 

Handicapped parking will be removed from the east parking lot but will remain in the west parking lot.

 

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/07/brookpark_rapid_station_constr.html

@GCRTA

Join us for a public mtg on the Warrensville-Shaker Station rehab on Wed 7/22 at 6:30p at Shaker Hts City Hall, 3400 Lee Rd, Shaker Hts.

FYI, if you are looking for the name of the new station on an RTA map, or the RTA Web site it is....Little Italy-University Circle.

 

The other new area station is Cedar-University (as in CWRU).

FYI, if you are looking for the name of the new station on an RTA map, or the RTA Web site it is....Little Italy-University Circle.

 

The other new area station is Cedar-University (as in CWRU).

 

I'm glad for the new station, but that name sure is a mouthful (I cringe at the thought of train engineers calling out that name).  UC-Little Italy (as in University Circle-Little Italy) seems to flow off the tongue a bit easier... but I'm still happy for the new station, anyway.

I think people will refer to the new station as Mayfield, despite its official name.

 

lillian kuri ‏@lilliankuri  Jul 21

I am so excited for the new @GCRTA @CLElittleitaly @inthecircle redline station to open❗️@UptownCle @CleInstituteArt

All Aboard Ohio @AllAboardOhio

Summer Outing Aug 15: #Cleveland #rail tour! See/learn about track, station, real-estate work! http://allaboardohio.org/2015/07/06/summer-mtg-family-outing-cleveland-rail-tour/

 

 

 

 

^^thats a cool night picture, just seeing it

 

this afternoon...

 

 

 

 

Amazing!

^ That last picture is a real picture? It looks like a rendering!

Some more Little Italy station pictures. Getting close!

 

I love the feel of this station. It reminds me of the L stations in Chicago. If only we had more rail stations with such dense neighborhoods and development around them.

 

 

 

 

 

^You're right, this new station is definitely L-like -- and those 1920s-era steel girder Rapid bridges enhance the old-time-y feel...

 

As we know, because of the freight-rail adjacent to most of the Rapid, the opportunities for this type of dense urban massing near Rapid tracks has been few and far between.  Probably Superior, a mile or so NE, is the only other place where the elevated-Rapid has been integrated into the urban fabric (on the West Side, the open-Cut Rapid is generally better situated in this sense).  Of course 2 regressive events occurred: East Cleveland surrounding Superior collapsed into unspeakable urban decay to the point where there are practically no people or businesses adjacent to the Rapid and, of course, CTS' failure to complete the Mayfield Station the Van Sweringen's had started, when the original Red Line was built in 1955... Thankfully Little Italy residents kept their dense little neighborhood intact and viable and RTA is correcting CTS' 60-year-old miscue.  ... and with the growth of both Little Italy and Uptown, and the prospects for Intesa, this could become one of RTA's busiest stations.

 

 

I didn't realize the entrance was going to be underneath the underpass. I dig that.

 

I do hope people will walk to/from Uptown/UC to use this station.

^ They (broad definition of "they") really need to fix up that area under the CSX bridge so that it is more inviting for pedestrians to walk that way. Also, once Intesa comes online, it will make the walk down Mayfield to Uptown much more seamless. But even with the status quo, it will be exponentially better than using E. 120th.

"They" have the underpass cleanup in the plans.

I have a question about the bridges. How often are bridge replacements recommended? I ask because the at Superior road station looks past due for a replacement.

I do hope people will walk to/from Uptown/UC to use this station.

 

It's literally like two blocks from Uptown to this station, is there really concern that people won't walk that distance? I do agree that the overpass could use an upgrade and enhanced lighting.  I've seen some really cool examples of colorfully lit up tunnels and overpasses in San Francisco, San Antonio, and a few other places, and I think it'd be really cool to see something like that at this location.  It could be lit up white, green, and red to act as a gateway to Little Italy.  That'd be cool!

Lots of people make that walk, but more might walk it (or walk it more comfortably) if the underpass was nicer.

I don't know if it was possible, but I was really hoping that the new station would be placed on the west side of the underpass.  I thought it would be more visible and inviting to more people, and more development. 

I don't know if it was possible, but I was really hoping that the new station would be placed on the west side of the underpass.  I thought it would be more visible and inviting to more people, and more development. 

 

That would have raised the cost of station construction since there was already a concrete vault built below the RTA tracks for a never-finished station. And it would have increased the underpass distance for all passengers (including those from Little Italy who have to double back after buying their tickets/passes) between the station headhouse to the RTA tracks which are on the east side of four parallel yet separately owned rail corridors (one of the three rights of way is no longer used).

Some more detail about the imminent underpass improvements (borrowed from upthread):

 

From the UC-Little Italy station PD article:

 

The current project ends abruptly at the railroad bridges crossing Mayfield, as the street and sidewalks enter a dark, puddled underpass where walls are shedding small chunks of concrete. But that will be different next year. RTA has hired City Architecture to design a makeover of the underpass. One element will involve extending the ribbon of LED lighting from the station for illumination.

 

"We're going to clean it up, light it, keep the debris from the railroad away," said Joseph Shaffer, RTA's director of engineering and project development. He said the work will be done by the fall of 2016.

So the N-S underpass at the new station will remain as dark, dank and nasty as the one at the current Euclid-E.120 stop for another 1+ years.  Why wasn't this cleanup better coordinated with the station building?

 

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/06/univuniversity_circle-little_italy_rapid_station_opening_soonersity_circle-little_italy.html#incart_related_stories

I don't know if it was possible, but I was really hoping that the new station would be placed on the west side of the underpass.  I thought it would be more visible and inviting to more people, and more development. 

 

What could have been done is that the station head house beneath the tracks could have been elongated so that it would have extended under the entire RR ROW allowing for an entry on the east and west sides, which I'm guessing is what you mean.  I was hoping for this, too...  One of the original proposals was for stairs up from the platforms (IIRC the original plan was for separate east and west side platforms) to an overhead walkway or plaza extending over the tracks to the west side of the ROW.

 

Unfortunately both those alternatives were ruled out due to expense, and the single-island platform headhouse below the tracks was designed, so we'll just have to cope with another long sidewalk underpass under the tracks not unlike Euclid-E. 120... I'm guessing that the responsibility/jurisdiction for cleaning the tunnel not under RTA's tracks is not with RTA; probably the City of Cleveland.  I just wish there had been better coordination so that the underpass could have been fixed up during the 2 years the Little Italy station was being built.  I understand now that a fixed up sidewalk-tunnel is at least 1 year away... Oh well.

^^I was wrong, it is RTA's responsibility... Right now the situation is weird b/c the underpass under the Red Line is bright and shiny with funky LED lighting, but walking west from there ... yikes!

Depending on the level of improvements, the entire underpass may end up being, in effect, part of the headhouse.  Seems a key piece is the signage at the western end of the underpass, to make clear from the Mayfield/Euclid intersection exactly where the station is.  All in all, I think the above ground presence of the station is a little too meek. I'd gladly have traded the tacked on wavy junk for another empty story or two of tower rising above the headhouse, to make it more of a neighborhood beacon.

^^I was wrong, it is RTA's responsibility... Right now the situation is weird b/c the underpass under the Red Line is bright and shiny with funky LED lighting, but walking west from there ... yikes!

 

From what I remember when I asked someone from RTA about this, they said there were issue with water leakage from the CSX rail bridge. CSX has apparently had zero interest in upgrading the bridge crossing, and they also rejected an offer for RTA to organize the funding to fix it up. Again, I'm not 100% sure on the details of that, so if someone knows more, please correct me.

Let's go to the Way-Back Machine, back to when construction first began on the Little Italy-University Circle station. Back to 87 years ago!

 

The Van Sweringen brothers envisioned a network of rapid transit lines to the suburbs that would also provide a street-free routing for electric interurban railways from outlying cities like Lorain, Medina, Painesville, Ashtabula, Chardon, Middlefield, Akron to enter the city. But as construction got underway for the main east-west rapid transit trunk line in 1928 (that would parallel the new electrified route for steam railroads to enter Cleveland Union Terminal, later Tower City), government-funded paved roads were putting the stockholder-owned interurbans steadily out of business. Some of the stronger interurbans had survived to the stock market crash of 1929 thanks to them being diversified trusts of transportation, real estate and electric utilities. That wouldn't last as progressives and trust busters, many funded by automobile interests, sought to break up the electric railroad trusts and free Americans from the clutches of monopolists with paved public roads. Or so the theme went in that volatile sunset of the Gilded Age when anarchists derailed trains, shot capitalist powerbrokers and bombed Wall Street.....

 

Despite the storm clouds forming, construction proceeded briskly on the Cleveland Union Terminal (CUT) tracks and was just getting underway for the east-west rapid transit line in 1928. The two Shaker Rapid lines had already been mostly built, with a few more extensions in the works, including the street-free running alongside the CUT tracks from East 30th into the new station on Public Square. Construction crews were head east to grade a right of way, build bridges, erect catenary poles for overhead wires and start laying track from a branch of the Shaker Rapid near Kinsman Avenue alongside the Nickel Plate Railroad (NKP) and new (1911-built) New York Central Belt Line around central Cleveland. And crews started building stations too.

 

The Van Sweringens' original plan was to expand the Nickel Plate East Cleveland railroad station at Euclid and East 120th Street with a newer, larger station that also served New York Central trains rerouted off the lakekfront and out of the cramped, Civil War-era Union Station....

 

This was the old NKP East Cleveland station on July 11, 1928, seen from the site of where GCRTA's Euclid-East 120th station is today:

 

 

A year later, abutments for bridges carrying four more tracks are being built while the NKP station is being demolished to make way:

 

 

This is one of the Van Sweringens' early plan drafts. You can see they planned to expand the existing NKP station. Instead, it was moved to Superior Avenue and greatly expanded to handle about 40 passenger trains a day for the New York Central and Nickel Plate RRs. That meant that a new rapid transit station didn't have to be built at Euclid/East 120th. Instead it could be built closer to the action in rapidly growing University Circle:

 

 

Demolition for and construction of Cleveland Union Terminal downtown began in 1922, with Terminal Tower opened and generating revenue by the end of 1928. That's when construction on the approach tracks began. This is what Little Italy looked like before railroad construction started. The view is from Mayfield Road, looking north on July 11, 1928 from where Tony Brush Park is today:

 

 

Same day, different angle, at the intersection of East 119th and Mayfield:

 

 

A year later on July 30, 1929 (three months before the Wall Street crash), substantial progress was made on the Cleveland Union Terminal and east-west Rapid Transit line rights of way, including the concrete vault for the new Mayfield Road rapid transit station. Some of the concrete work should already look familiar, if you've sifted through the construction photos in this thread for the current GCRTA Red Line station:

 

 

Two months later on Sept. 21, 1929 (or just a month to go before the Black Tuesday crash), substantial progress was made on the Mayfield Road station. The concrete work is pretty much done, and would provide the foundation for the station that will open next week, Aug. 11, 2015:

 

 

And then the decade-long Great Depression hit. Construction was farther along on the Cleveland Union Terminal and its passenger-only approach tracks from the east and west, thanks to the backing of the powerful New York Central RR. Much of the railroad construction into Cleveland Union Terminal was completed and the station officially opened on June 30, 1930. Other passenger-only approach tracks, including those for the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Erie Railroad were sidetracked. So was the east-west rapid transit line as interurbans continued to file for bankruptcy and got PUCO permission to shut down despite carrying healthy passenger loads on several lines, including the Cleveland & Eastern to Painesville, the Northern Ohio Traction & Light to Akron and Canton, the Cleveland Southwestern to Medina and Elyria, and the Lake Shore Electric to Lorain which lasted the longest, until 1938. All construction on the east-west line had halted, even as wood crossties, track hardware and even some rails were placed along the route and sat there until scavengers picked them up.

 

Some of the track was actually built, as seen here at the Cedar Station, where construction had advanced the farthest on any station until financing was pulled for the rapid transit line in late 1929 and work was halted. Eleven years later, on a cold and wintry day in 1940, a news reporter visited the station to remind Clevelanders that it had a partially finished rapid transit line. A half-year later, another photographer visited the Cedar station, looking in the opposite direction (or north) toward the Adelbert overpass. But a war was brewing overseas and would soon visit America and demand nearly all of her robust manufacturing capacity:

 

 

In 1944, as it was apparent the war would soon end, postwar plans were being formed. This includes a Cleveland Transit System plan for finishing the east-west rapid line. But with the interurbans all gone, planners wondered if there was a new purpose for the transit line. What else could feed into this transit line, as it was never envisioned to function as a stand-alone rail route. The future of the city's streetcars were being debated, and more car traffic was slowing down the suburban streetcars as they made their way deeper into the city. They were suffering the same sluggish problems as the interurbans did, and a faster route was sought for the suburban streetcar lines to enter the city. Thus, the east-west rapid transit line found a new lease on life:

 

 

That would give streetcar lines like the Mayfield, Cedar and Fairmount lines that operated mostly on traffic-free paths in the suburbs (such as in landscaped medians or as seen here on the south side of Cedar Glen, looking east from the unfinished route of the rapid line):

 

 

Yet all of the east-side streetcars were gone by 1951 due to various factors. Cleveland Mayor Ray Miller was one of the biggest. He served on City Council’s Transportation Committee in 1946 when the decision was made to dismantle Cleveland’s streetcars. Four years later, Mayor Miller received a new GMC dealership (West Park Chevrolet) after GM won the contract for supplying new buses to the city-owned Cleveland Transit System. So the decision was made by CTS to build a stand-alone, heavy rail, east-west rapid transit line so that the unfinished east-side stations like Cedar (seen here in 1951) could serve a purpose and speed commuters into downtown faster than any bus could:

Cedar Glen rapid station-1951-Herbert Harwood by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

 

Alas, when it came to the Little Italy-University Circle station, the first version of the Van Sweringens' plan was dusted off and a station at Euclid-East 120th was favored over Mayfield to capture traffic from Euclid Avenue bus transfers. The east-west line opened in March 1955 and the Euclid-East 120th attracted bus transfers well into the 1960s. But the traffic declined as East Cleveland declined until few used it anymore. So maybe the Van Sweringen brothers revised plan, which would put the station at Mayfield, made the most sense after all. Since two-thirds of all transit trips begin/end as pedestrian trips, having more traffic generators within walking distance of a station makes for a successful, busy station. I'm sure the Little Italy station will do great, and perform even better as the surface parking lots west of the station are developed with Intesa and whatever University Hospitals has in mind -- hopefully more than just a parking deck.

 

Great stuff, KJP[/member]. Thanks for the write up. I knew that a Mayfield Road station was in the Van's plans, but never knew that they actually had been in the process of building it.

^Yes, I think you're right about that... I know the issue came up, re the University-Cedar station even before it was rebuilt, how RTA had maintained and painted its bridges which are in contrast to its neighbor, NS, which has those horrible, rusty, paint-paint peeling overpasses which defile the handsome homes and apts of Cedar Glen but also are an ugly gateway to the Heights... NS, as long as their tracks are safe for their rumbling freight trains, have little if any motivation to keeping its bridges looking nice.

^^KJP the historian, strikes again!... good stuff... I've never seen that photo of the newly completed rapid bridges from the 1920s on Mayfield-- I never knew there was that wood-frame building (looks like an apt house over retail) that was literally right up on the tracks.  It's amazing and sad when you think of all the NYC-like dense structures we've lost over the decades ... Fortunately Little Italy has maintained its viability and density.  This may be the best, close-crop population-to-train situation in the entire RTA system ... even trumping Shaker Square.

I wonder about the effects on the U.C station, if any at all.

^I'm guessing some UH workers may be a little closer to the new station and use it, especially Seidman Cancer Center.

 

I hope RTA posts station signage on the west side of the NS bridges. Not sure how visible the station is from that side.

 

 

Yet all of the east-side streetcars were gone by 1951 due to various factors. Cleveland Mayor Ray Miller was one of the biggest. He served on City Council’s Transportation Committee in 1946 when the decision was made to dismantle Cleveland’s streetcars. Four years later, Mayor Miller received a new GMC dealership (West Park Chevrolet) after GM won the contract for supplying new buses to the city-owned Cleveland Transit System. So the decision was made by CTS to build a stand-alone, heavy rail, east-west rapid transit line so that the unfinished east-side stations like Cedar (seen here in 1951) could serve a purpose and speed commuters into downtown faster than any bus could:

Cedar Glen rapid station-1951-Herbert Harwood by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

 

 

 

Great post! So as I'm looking at the last photo here, the guard rail over the east side of the rapid tracks of the unfinished station looks almost identical to the one that exists today at University-Cedar station. So the question is, was the guard rail replaced at some point to look identical to the one put in decades before the station actually opened, or is this in fact a last remaining design element of the original station?

 

edit:

I've always thought that this "unusable" sidewalk along the guard rail was kind of bizarre too. Would original station designs have allowed for riders to exit both sides of the platform?

 

^I believe the entire bridge, including the decorative guard rail, is original from the Vans' era.  RTA merely rehabbed and painted them; not replaced them; very similar to the original bridge's used at the new Little Italy station where RTA relocated the eastbound track bridge 10 feet to the east to allow for the new platform. 

First look: New Mayfield RTA rapid station brightens one of city's ugliest corners

 

By Steven Litt, The Plain Dealer

on August 10, 2015 at 7:15 AM, updated August 10, 2015 at 7:35 AM

 

CLEVELAND, Ohio – As a post-industrial city with a declining population and shrinking tax base, Cleveland has a tattered public realm that requires serious attention.

 

Readers commented extensively on that reality in response to a column I wrote last week about eyesores that need to be addressed before the 2016 Republican National Convention.

 

But it's also important to point out impressive victories in the city's push for physical renewal, including the outstanding University Circle Uptown development, the excellent appearance of the city's Cultural Gardens in Rockefeller Park, and the rise of the Gordon Square Arts District in Detroit Shoreway.

 

The latest improvement is the new, $15 million Red Line rapid transit station in Little Italy, which will open for business with a brief ribbon cutting Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.

 

 

http://www.cleveland.com/architecture/index.ssf/2015/08/post_1.html

Here's Freshwater's write up on the new station. Is anyone else going to the ribbon cutting this evening?

 

http://www.freshwatercleveland.com/devnews/littleitalyrapid081115.aspx

Won't be there, unfortunately... One interesting oddity for tonight only: the Red Line will actually have 19 stations (with 2 being just 1 block away from each other) as RTA plans to keep Euclid-120 open for "courtesy" stops until the end of the day, when the station will disappear into Cleveland history.  RTA has a lot of map-changing ahead of them.

^ I wonder how long it will take them to update the maps, timetables (both online and paper), and NextConnect...

^And also the station location on google maps and apple maps.  Hopefully they're all over that.

Of all the station rehabs, this relocation is by far the most important upgrade to the Rapid system since the building of the Waterfront Line in 1996.

Here's Freshwater's write up on the new station. Is anyone else going to the ribbon cutting this evening?

 

http://www.freshwatercleveland.com/devnews/littleitalyrapid081115.aspx

 

Really wish I could have gone. I have meeting that's about to start.

Sorry for the lack of quality in these pictures, but here are a few pics from the ribbon cutting this evening. There was a long list of speakers including the mayor, Chris Ronayne, Armond Budish, Mamie Mitchell, Kevin Conwell, Ronn Richard, Father Joe Previte (pastor of Holy Rosary), Joe Calabrese, and a few others. It was nice to see an opening of a rail station garner such an assembly of people as well as such a large media presence.

 

 

 

It wouldn't be a true Little Italy station without an official Catholic blessing

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, I really don't get this. Why does this sign say Mayfield Road? That's not the official name of the station. The system is already confusing enough when it comes to using official vs. unofficial names for stations.

 

 

 

Overall, I thought it looked great. I can't wait to use the station this weekend to get to the Feast (and also for the AAO rail tour!). Also, work will be starting early spring '16 on rehabbing the area under the CSX/NS tracks. So, we'll have to live with the status quo for a little bit longer, but there is temporary lighting under there, and it was cleaned up substantially, so it's not too too terrible at the moment. Great stuff though.

 

Nice!

Didnt get to go but overheard some at the Tribe game tonight say that they were going to take the train back to this station.

Btw the game just ended!

Thanks for the photos... I like everything about what I see except the narrow stairwell and rather claustrophobic concrete walls surrounding the stairs.  This stairwell could get messy with 2-way crowds, like at the Feast this weekend, or during weekday evening Browns games or other big events starting just after rush hour.  I guess given the narrowness of the of the footprint which also must accommodate an ADA accessible (width-wise) walkway to the elevator inside the enclosed the waiting area, it's understandable. 

Great photo!  One of the limitations in the stairwell width was that they were precast off site and delivered to speed construction.  The size and weight was a consideration. 

I think the new station looks great. All I will really miss about 120th is the view from the platform. I was glad to see that Mayfield Road is emphasized on the platform signage and think that that is what the station will generally be known as.

I'm a little surprised they ended up with just painted concrete for the columns and some of the walls in the lower lobby. Looks like a partially modernized NYC or Boston subway station from 1900. Not a big deal, but surprising.

I think the new station looks great. All I will really miss about 120th is the view from the platform. I was glad to see that Mayfield Road is emphasized on the platform signage and think that that is what the station will generally be known as.

 

Agreed.  Even though the formal station name is geographically correct, ... "Mayfield" or "Mayfield Rd" is much easier on the lips... and ears.

 

Even though I'd expect to see heavy usage of the station for this weekend's Feast of the Assumption (RTA is already trumpeting the station's use for the Feast on its website), I'm more interested to see how much it will be utilized in daily traffic, esp around rush hour... Any early reports?

 

Nice!

Didnt get to go but overheard some at the Tribe game tonight say that they were going to take the train back to this station.

Btw the game just ended!

 

They couldn't. Regular service to the station began with the start of Red Line service this morning.

 

Nice!

Didnt get to go but overheard some at the Tribe game tonight say that they were going to take the train back to this station.

Btw the game just ended!

 

They couldn't. Regular service to the station began with the start of Red Line service this morning.

 

Trains were stopping at both stations last night.

^^RTA tweeted at lunchtime yesterday that "courtesy" stops would begin yesterday at 6pm, but I have no idea what that means.

 

EDIT: Vince answered the question.  I think trains were stopping at both stations last night.