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State Street is a great street. So it certainly deserves a splashy station, especially one promising room to move, natural light shining through a glass canopy and elevated vistas allowing Chicagoans to check whether or not there are people there doing things they don’t do on Broadway.

But $444 million? And a construction time of three years, beginning Jan. 5? That’s not a concept-to-opening time, but simple demo and construction. To build a design that was unveiled four years ago.

When this new station, designed by TranSystems and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, was announced in 2021 by Mayor Lori Lightfoot , the cost was announced as $180 million. Now, we’re told, it’s a mind-blowing $444 million. For one previously existing station. Stunning

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