The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) has selected Walsh Construction, along with joint venture partner Fluor, as the preferred partner to design and build Phase One of the Red and Purple Modernization (RPM) Program.
The $2.1 billion project will be the largest capital project in the CTA’s history and will deliver improved infrastructure and ridership capacity along Chicago’s most utilized transit lines.
Walsh Construction and Fluor, along with lead designer Stantec Consulting Services and major sub-consultant designers EXP, International Bridge Technologies and TranSmart/EJM Engineering, will design and build new elevated tracks along a 1.9-mile section on the north side of Chicago.
A Red-Purple Bypass will modernize the century-old Clark Junction where the Red, Purple and Brown Line trains currently intersect at the same grade. The flyover bypass structure will eliminate train congestion by allowing eight more Red Line trains per hour during rush periods, accommodating up to 7,200 additional customers per hour during rush periods and increasing Red and Purple line train speeds through the intersection.
The project also includes rebuilding the Lawrence, Argyle, Berwyn and Bryn Mawr stations, and all the tracks and support structures for more than a mile adjacent to the stations. New bridges, support structures, tracks and 3.2 miles of signal system upgrades also will be constructed. The project is set to start in the first quarter of 2019 and be completed by early 2025.
The RPM Phase One Project will be the latest in a collection of transit improvement projects built by Walsh across Chicago. Walsh is currently rehabilitating the CTA’s Garfield Green Line Station in the Washington Park neighborhood, as well as the Belmont and Jefferson Park Blue Line Intermodal Facilities. In February 2018, Walsh Construction completed the reconstruction of the CTA’s Wilson Station in the Uptown neighborhood.
-----------
Source: Walsh Construction
Image: Jonathan Lee [CC BY-SA 2.0] via Wikimedia Commons
