Dive Brief:
- The Chicago Transit Authority has selected Kiewit Construction Co. for the $13 million Green Line track improvement project contract, Progressive Railroading reported. Kiewit is expected to begin the project in March 2016.
- Kiewit will upgrade track infrastructure, replace ties, install new tie plates and fasteners, transpose running rails, replace ballast and perform surfacing work. The last track renewal for this particular stretch of tracks was in the 1980s, and 75% of the rail ties have exceeded their useful life.
- This project comes after a $20 million track modernization in 2013 on the Green Line South prior to the full reconstruction of the Red Line South branch, along with other CTA projects.
Dive Insight:
"When infrastructure ages, maintaining safe and reliable service becomes more difficult and costly," said CTA President Dorval Carter Jr. "This investment will allow us to continue to provide affordable, reliable service to the city’s West Side, where Green Line stations on the Lake branch had more than 9 million riders last year."
It's an interesting turn of events that after Boston’s Green Line debacle — a project in which the consortium including Kiewit was recently ousted — Kiewit will now build a different Green Line project, this time in Chicago.
Boston's project saw delays and cost overruns to the tune of $1 billion, along with its share of taxpayer outrage. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority fired four lead contractors, including White-Skanska-Kiewit, so that it can put the project out for rebidding.