Start 12: Chicago Transit Authority Red Line Upgrade
Cost: $283 million

The Chicago Transit Authority began a $192 million upgrade to the signal system of the Dan Ryan Expressway branch of the Red Line.

The work is part of a $282.6 million upgrade to the transit line.

The Red Line, which runs north to south and parallels Lake Michigan, is busiest of the city's rail lines and has not had a major upgrade its 35 years of operation.

"Communications and signal equipment has evolved quite a bit in 35 years," said Susan Plassmeyer, former chief of staff for CTA president Frank Kreusi and recently appointed executive vice president of construction, engineering and facilities.

Slated for completion in early 2006, the upgrades will be performed on a three-phase program.

Signals, Interlockings, Rail

Among the upgrades are 9.1 mi. of new control signals and communication equipment, 9 new interlockings - interconnected signals that give trains permission to proceed over a section of track when conditions are deemed safe - and new bi-directional signals that will improve train efficiency and allow trains to run at faster speeds so that commute times are shortened.

The project also calls for the replacement of 9.1 mi. of contact rail, or third rail, which delivers power to the trains. Trains put in service 30 years ago, when the current contact rail was installed, did not require as much power as modern trains do due in part the addition of upgraded air conditioning systems.

Phase one is under way with the installation of temporary tracks and signal systems to reroute trains to different areas of existing stations so that existing track and signal systems can be taken out of service, removed and replaced.

"Trains will move around construction zones rather than through them so that customers will see minimal delays in their trips," Plassmeyer said. This phase, which will wrap up in March, includes some contact rail replacement.

Phase two, which will run between August 2005 and January 2006, will include construction of two substations, the upgrades of existing substations, installation of new signal systems, new fiber-optic cable and replacement of the remaining contact rail.

Phase three deals with stations, platform canopies and bus bridgework.

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