(Above) The Wabash Lights – a public art project planned for Wabash Avenue in the Loop – pass Palmer House in this rendering. (Click on image to view larger version.)

December 10, 2015 – Four years in the making, the public art project to light up the underside of the Wabash Avenue L tracks should be ready for testing in early January.

A 48-foot stretch along Wabash between Adams and Monroe will be fitted with programmable LED tubes. The tubes will be controlled by visitors to a website and users of a mobile app.

In August, Jack Newell and Seth Unger announced they had raised $55,000 from 918 investors and they thought they would be testing The Wabash Lights this fall.

Unger said on Monday the project has been slowed by the city.

“The city has some rules [about] when construction on city government property can happen and they essentially said in the couple weeks leading up to Thanksgiving through Christmas…there was a moratorium on work.”

Chicago Department of Transportation has completed some work on the L tracks for the project, for which Newell and Unger are paying.

Although Newell and Unger have hired a director of development to attract corporate sponsors, they say the lights will not be used for advertising.