Chicago Transit awards Red Line contract

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) board approved awarding a contract for the new Red Line 95th Street Terminal at 95th Street/Dan Ryan station to Walsh/II in One J.V., which will serve as construction manager/general contractor at risk (CM/GC).

The $240 million project will expand and greatly improve the 95th/Dan Ryan Terminal and bring significant improvements to a bus and rail station that is a vital part of the South Side and serves about 20,000 customers each weekday.

Through this arrangement, a construction manager for the entire project is selected to begin work during the design phase of the project, rather than the typical practice of hiring a general contractor after the design of the project is completed.

The benefits include reducing the chances of project delays and cost overruns in complex, heavy civil construction projects like the 95th Street Terminal, because the CM/GC is involved in aspects of the project including resolving complicated constructability issues, materials selection and other critical logistics. It also advances the start of the project’s construction by about five months.

This form of procurement is being used for other Chicago projects including the McCormick Place West Expansion and the new Rental Car Facility at O’Hare International Airport. The same approach has been used by other U.S. transit agencies for large-scale projects, including in Boston, Dallas and Portland.

The value of the contract is not to exceed $648,000. The award includes 30% Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) participation, including II in One Contractors Inc. (20%), which will serve as a project principal, chief estimator, and estimating and DBE compliance officer for preconstruction services, and The Roderick Group Inc. (10%), which will provide design validation reviews.

Other contracting tasks include cost estimating, 3-D modeling, determining site staging/logistics and other project tasks.

The 95th/Dan Ryan Terminal is one of CTA’s busiest, with 24-hour Red Line service and more than 1,000 CTA and Pace bus trips on a typical weekday. The current configuration does not have adequate capacity to efficiently serve customers, which number around 20,000 on an average weekday.

Construction on the new 95th Street Terminal will begin in the spring of 2014 and is expected to be completed by the end of 2016. Funding is provided through a variety of federal, state and local sources.