THE Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) to three contracting teams pre-selected earlier this year to build the $US 3.6bn Red Line Extension Project (RLE), the largest capital construction project in the agency’s history.

The three teams - FH Paschen, Ragnar Benson, Milhouse and Bowa Joint Venture; Kiewit Infrastructure; and Walsh Vinci Transit Community Partners - were selected earlier this year through a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) process launched in 2022.

The RLE includes:

  • a 9km heavy rail extension from the 95th/Dan Ryan Terminal to 130th Street
  • four new, fully-accessible stations near 103rd Street, 111th Street, Michigan Avenue and 130th Street
  • multimodal connections at stations to include bus, bike, pedestrian, and park & ride facilities, and
  • a new depot and maintenance facility near 120th Street that will contribute to improved reliability and service across the entire Red Line, which will be delivered under a separate project contract. 

CTA says the RLE will provide much-needed connection to jobs, education, commerce, and opportunity on the Far South Side, while also serving as a catalyst for economic development that benefits the entire city.

The release of the RFP follows CTA’s issuance of a draft RFP to the same group earlier this year. Feedback guided the creation of the RFP, which CTA says will improve the contractors’ ability to bid on the project and for CTA to hire the best contracting team for the RLE project.

The contracting teams’ proposals will be considered on a variety of criteria, including experience, price, workforce programmes, inclusion of Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE)-certified firms and other minority owned firms in the project, and other factors. CTA expects major construction of the project to begin in 2025 pending federal approvals, and anticipates beginning pre-construction work in 2024. This will include property demolition and advanced utility relocation work.

The RLE project is expected to create 6200 direct construction jobs.

Project funding

Earlier this month, the United States Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announced the RLE project is in line for the $US 1.973bn in critical grant funding needed to build the project, the largest transit infrastructure grant awarded to CTA in the agency’s history.

The FTA advanced the project to the next phase of the federal “New Starts” programme, which allows CTA to begin the engineering phase of the project. This will include the additional design and engineering needed to build the project, and identifies the federal grant funding CTA can receive for the project once the engineering phase is completed and approved by the FTA.

The engineering phase is expected to continue into 2024 and CTA anticipates securing a funding award by the end of 2024, subject to federal review and approvals. The remaining project funding will come from an additional $US 950m in tax revenues following an increase approved by Chicago City Council last year, and other sources.

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