When Chicago Tribune transportation reporter Jon Hilkevitch was 13 years old, he and his grandmother took a ride on the opening day of what is now the Dan Ryan branch of the CTA Red Line -- a branch soon to face massive reconstruction.

In the Tribune newsroom on Thursday, Jon had a button from the line's opening day in his pocket, and the Tribune was preparing to run a story and graphic about the ambitious project to rebuild the Red Line through the South Side.

There's nothing about that button in Jon's pocket that is new -- what used to be the "CTA Dan Ryan Line" on Chicago’s South Side hasn't been new since it opened on Sept. 28, 1969. The fare then was 40 cents.

Background on the project


Later to be called the Red Line Dan Ryan branch, the line was built, starting in 1967, in the median of what previously was the South Expressway, which later was renamed to honor Dan Ryan, president of the Cook County Board who died a year before the expressway opened in 1961.

Now, almost 44 years later, the railroad tracks and all supporting systems on the approximately 10-mile branch are at the end of their useful life and need replacing. A whole new railroad will be built starting May 19.

Visualizing the future

A Tribune story by Jon and a graphic by producers Jemal R. Brinson and Kyle Bentle will take readers into the construction zone.

As the CTA prepares to shut down and rebuild such a large portion of the Red Line, Jemal was charged with explaining each phase of the construction, visually, in a diagram.

The process started by interviewing CTA sources on how they will do the work. They sent us images of machines, information and schematics of the process.

The next phase involved sketching, taking photos, and meeting with graphics editors to make sure the focus of the graphic was sound. Jemal then took time to understand each part of the process so he could re-create each sequence accurately.

Jemal used several programs to produce the final images. A 3-D animation program was used to model and render the scenes. This kind of program lets graphics producers focus on specific parts of complicated proccesses.

The final piece of the puzzle involved writing the text describing the steps.

There'll be more explaining to do as the reconstruction begins. Like Jon's button, we've got the past in hand. The key will be in laying out the future.

-- Jon Hilkevitch and Jemal R. Brinson