Weekend Construction Warriors Keep 'El' Trains Rolling

Reconstructed stations on the CTA's Blue Line to sit on center platforms
between two sets of tracks
May 2003

by Mary Beth Sammons

Tearing down rusted, century-old elevated train structures and reassembling them isn't so easy when workers have only the weekend and must make sure the tracks are reopened in time for about 7,000 Chicago commuters to hop on board Monday morning.

Add the time crunch to tracks that wind through city alleys and new construction that brushes up against industrial and residential buildings, in some cases less than a thumb's length away from a bedroom window.

Indeed, the $482 million rehabilitation of the 105-year-old Douglas branch of the Chicago Transit Authority's Blue Line has proven to be a logistical feat and an engineering marvel. It's one CTA officials agree they wouldn't want to have to repeat, at least for another century.

It has taken ingenious and creative construction solutions throughout the 2 1/2 years the project has been under way to make sure those train lines are running again during weekday rush hours so commuters from Chicago's West Side who depend on the line can get to their jobs in the city.

"It's been a lot of pressure to be working while these trains were keeping their schedule," said Glen Zika, vice president of engineering for the CTA. "The challenge was to do a tremendous amount of track work on weekends with no margin for error because the trains had to be running on Monday."

Though the weekend project is taking twice as much time to complete, this weekend warrior method has prevented "a lot of hardship for commuters," added Tom Krug, deputy project manager for the CTA.

"We didn't want to shut down the whole West Side and lose all that ridership," he said. "It was work weekends or otherwise shut the whole line down for two years."

New Stations Arriving

Long besieged by a crumbling structure and slow-moving trains, the Blue Line project includes eight new stations, replacement of almost 400 structural spans, almost 200 column foundations and an upgraded signal system.

In addition, station houses between Damen Avenue in Chicago and 54th Street in Cicero are being equipped with elevators for disabled riders and designed so that police in passing squad cars can have a clear view of the stations. The elevators and escalators at all the stations will be linked to devices that notify maintenance officials when the equipment breaks down.

Also new: the stations will sit on center platforms between two sets of tracks, replacing the past one on each side.

Throughout the course of the construction, temporary stations were built to accommodate commuters at five locales along the 6.6-mi. track: 54th Street; Pulaski/Kildare; Central Park/Kedzie; California; and Western/Hoyne. The first of the permanent stations is set to open this spring and the openings will be staggered throughout the summer and are scheduled for final completion next fall.

The electrical switch work, which will not interrupt weekday ridership, is not scheduled for completion until early 2004. When the entire project is complete, the new and improved rail line will shave off 20 minutes of travel time from the end stop to the Loop, Krug said.

"This was a massive orchestration of events," said Bill Jorgensen, project manager for Blue Line Managers, a joint venture between DMJM/Harris of East Illinois and Kenny Construction Co. of Wheeling, which is serving as construction manager for the Blue Line rehabilitation.

"You've got to have all the construction materials in place and ready to go and spend a lot of effort putting in safety lines. It took aggressive scheduling to make sure the crews were lined up and very proactive management to make sure not a moment of work is wasted and that the job gets done."

Construction crews are highly motivated to work fast. They face damages of up to $70,000 if they are more than two hours late completing the weekend work, Jorgensen added.

The heaviest work is being done during 45-hour increments on weekends. Construction crews hit the tracks every Saturday at 3 a.m., racing the clock until 1 a.m. Monday. During that time, they demolish the existing elevated track structures and attach new support columns to beams and girders along the 5 mi. of elevated tracks, and then they replace them.

During weekdays, the 600-member crew generally works under the tracks on constructing the six new stations and upgrading controls.

The list of challenges and creative solutions was designed to avoid the same mistakes that were made during a renovation to the Green Line a decade ago, which suffered from major cost overruns, mid-construction design changes and completion of the project way behind schedule.
That two-year shutdown of the Green Line went $110 million over budget and resulted in a 40 percent loss of ridership that took five years to recoup.

Building Next to Original Track

Part of the challenge included erecting the new rapid transit line right next to the original track in order to replace the steel elevated columns that were put into place between 1896 and 1912, said John McCue, project manager for the general contractor, a joint venture between Kiewit Construction Co. of Omaha, Neb., and Delgado Erectors Inc. of Lansing, Ill.

The supports had deteriorated so badly that trains were forced to crawl along the dilapidated tracks at 15 mph during the rush hour through the city's Pilsen, Heart of Chicago, Little Village and Lawndale neighborhoods.

The fix has required erecting steel beams within a half-inch of the existing structure and adjacent residential properties.

In addition, during construction trains are sharing a single set of tracks on parts of the route, using switchovers to go between old tracks and the new tracks as sections of the line are torn down and replaced.

That means that on weekends, train service temporarily stops, allowing workers to use blowtorches and cranes to cut away and remove old track and support columns. Sections of the new, prefabricated steel track in 50-ft. sections are fastened to the new concrete piers.

"In some cases we had to erect the steel columns within a half an inch of buildings then get the 50-ft.-long tracks moved in there over rooftops or between buildings," Krug said. "We were fortunate. Our only damage was one cracked sidewalk."

Working with Community

CTA officials launched an extensive community awareness effort that included door-to-door fliers and updates on construction progress at neighborhood meetings. Residents in the affected neighborhoods were told in many cases person-to-person by CTA officials about the monstrous cranes that would be blocking their alleys and about noise that would be created from cutting through 3/8-in.-thick steel on 400 rail spans. Innovations included using galvanized steel to eliminate the need to paint and repaint the structural supports, and the use of environmentally friendly plastic ties.

When full service on the Douglas trains is restored in 2004, the 15-mph slow zones that were required on about half of the dilapidated system will disappear and nearby residents will be exposed to less noise, the CTA's Zika said.

Century-Old Tracks Get Plastic Surgery

Chicago schoolchildren cleaned up their neighborhood streets to help the Chicago Transit Authority rebuild the Blue Line. Call it an environmentally savvy joint venture. The CTA called on children at 41 public schools in neighborhoods along the "El" line to collect plastic milk and juice jugs, which were recycled to create 1,000 plastic ties used in the rehabilitation of the train line. Through the project, the CTA not only saved trees but also removed plastic from the waste stream by creating the plastic lumbers, which have several advantages over traditional timber, said Anne McCarthy, CTA spokesperson. The students jumped on board when the CTA launched the "Renew the Blue" Recycling Project, an initiative to collect recyclable plastic from the neighborhoods surrounding the Cermak (Douglas) Branch of the Blue Line. The collected plastic was melted down and turned into plastic railroad ties. The "Renew the Blue" recycling project was a collaborative effort between the CTA, Chicago Public Schools, the City of Chicago Department of Environment, Chicago Park District and neighborhood residents, McCarthy said. "We always encourage our students to do their part to preserve the quality of our environment by recycling at home and supporting our teachers as they implement recycling programs in their classrooms," said Arne Duncan, chief executive officer of the Chicago Public Schools. "Through this community partnership, students will be able to see firsthand the results of their recycling efforts every time the new Blue Line travels through their neighborhood." This isn't the first time the CTA has used plastic in its rehab projects. Plastic lumber railroad ties are poised to penetrate the railroad industry, which could use up to 17 million ties per year, according to Mark Alsentzer, president and chief executive officer of U.S. Plastic Lumber Corp., which is based in Boca Raton, Fla. The ties must be strong enough to support the weight of a locomotive, which weighs up to 240 tons. The CTA began replacing its creosote-soaked wood ties with recycled plastic ties in 1998. The plastic ties offer both performance and environmental advantages. Wood ties require creosote treatments to extend the service life of wood, especially in certain harsh climates. The plastic ties resist decay, insect attack and water absorption and do not require the use of toxic preservatives. To date, the CTA has installed the largest number of plastic composite ties of any public transit agency in the country. Of the 650,000 track ties in use on the CTA system, 30,000 are made from plastic, with an additional 11,000 currently on order.