CTA’s Red and Purple Modernization Project’s Construction Equipment Adopts New Name

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) and Walsh-Fluor Design-Build Team, the contractor for CTA’s Red and Purple Modernization (RPM) Phase One Project, announced the overhead gantry system building new Red and Purple Line track structures will be named the Windy City Gantry, a name selected by a second-grade class at Goudy Elementary in Uptown.

The CTA and Walsh-Fluor held a contest for elementary school students to suggest a name for the gantry as part of a contest and educational opportunity for young students to learn more about construction and the RPM project happening next to their school. The name will be added to the gantry while work is performed through 2025.

The gantry is a massive piece of construction equipment that Walsh-Fluor is using to assemble concrete bridge segments for the new Red and Purple Line tracks between Ardmore Avenue and Leland Avenue. The gantry, at 285 feet long, is about the size of a 747 aircraft and is a feat of engineering that allows RPM to build the new Red and Purple Line track structures more quickly and with fewer impacts on the community during construction.

“We have enjoyed bringing this project into classrooms and we thank Goudy students for selecting ‘Windy City Gantry’,” said CTA President Dorval R. Carter, Jr. “The RPM project is focused improving transit, and it’s also about improving and including the community in this transformational project, which includes our youngest riders.”

Five classrooms of second, third, and fourth graders from Goudy Public School met with CTA and Walsh-Fluor to learn how the CTA was rebuilding the 100-year-old Red and Purple line structure, as well as information about the gantry and why it was in their neighborhood.

Second, third and fourth-grade classes were invited to submit a name for the gantry-naming contest and participated in a virtual classroom lesson with Walsh-Fluor and CTA professionals about the project. The students had already been studying about bridge construction, led by Patricia Whitehouse, a K-5 Engineering instructor at Goudy.

Each class submitted an entry and a short description of the name they chose.  

The winning name will be displayed on the gantry for the duration of the bridge segment installation work, which is expected to be completed in 2025.