CCS International, Inc. was recently awarded cost management responsibilities for phase 1 of the $1.3 – 1.7 billion Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) North Red & Purple Line Modernization (RPM) project. Throughout the design process, CCS will work with the design team and the CTA to ensure that the anticipated work stays within the initial project budget. “This project will continue the extensive improvements that the CTA have undertaken during the past several years. CCS are proud to, yet again, be part of another exciting and significant project for the CTA”, said Clive Bransby, Principal, CCS International, Inc. The cost and project management consultancy will continue to monitor the costs against schedule and design milestones and make any necessary modifications to manage the project’s costs.
Scheduled to get underway in September, the full RPM corridor extends from just north of Belmont Station (Clark Junction) to Linden Station in Wilmette, Illinois. Ranging from rail repair and realignment to complete reconstruction, RPM’s improvements will significantly reduce travel times while bringing some of the infrastructure that was built between 1900 and 1922 into a state of good repair.
The project consists of two distinct elements, the Red-Purple Bypass Project and the Lawrence to Bryn Mawr Modernization Project. The Red-Purple Bypass will construct a fifth track bypass flyover immediately north of the CTA Belmont station. This bypass flyover will separate and improve service on the northbound Brown Line trains that currently share track with southbound Purple line trains. The Lawrence to Bryn Mawr Modernization will replace approximately 1.3 miles of existing rail line. Four stations along this corridor (Lawrence, Argyle, Berwyn and Bryn Mawr) will be expanded, modernized, and made ADA accessible, addressing a current two-mile stretch of the CTA train line that is not accessible to riders with disabilities.
The development phase of the project has a two-year time limit ending November 15, 2015, and the entire project is expected to be completed by 2016.
