Emanuel promises Red Line work will include black contractors, workers
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter fspielman@suntimes.com June 25, 2012 1:30PM
CTA President Forrest Claypool talks about the 95th Street Station and Red Line work Monday. | Brian Jackson~Sun-Times
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Updated: July 27, 2012 6:15AM
Black contractors and employees will help rebuild both the south leg of the CTA’s Red Line and the 95th Street Station, Mayor Rahm Emanuel vowed Monday, determined to avoid a Metra-style controversy.
U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), who threatened to stop Metra “in its tracks” unless black contractors get a piece of the $133 million South Side railroad bridge project known as the “Englewood Flyover,” made the same threat Monday about the CTA work.
“We’re not gonna have a Metra on our watch, not gonna happen,” the mayor said.
He noted that the CTA plans to hire 200 permanent bus drivers to shuttle Red Line riders to the Green Line during the planned five-month shutdown of the south leg of the Red Line to accommodate the work next year. The new drivers can qualify for commercial driver’s licenses at the new Olive Harvey College, which will prepare students for jobs in transportation and distribution. “The CTA is working with the Urban League to ensure that we will have [black] participation not only in the construction, [but] the engineering, the architectural work throughout the system to represent the investment we’re gonna make on the South Side,” Emanuel said. The CTA also is looking to break the Red Line and 95th Street station contracts into more manageable bites “so smaller contractors can bid on them,” Peterson said.
