The Chicago Transit Board today awarded a contract for a project that will make numerous improvements to three substations that provide power to CTA’s Red and Brown lines. The Kimball, Princeton and State Substation Rehabilitation project will improve service and reliability for customers by upgrading the equipment that provides power to Red and Brown line train tracks as well. The project will also upgrade existing substation buildings.
The Board awarded the $25.6 million contract to Clark Construction Group. The scope of the work will upgrade existing electrical equipment and buildings at Princeton substation on West 63rd Street, the State Street substation in the Loop and the Kimball substation at the Brown Line terminal. The project will also increase the electrical power capacity at both State and Kimball by twenty percent.
“This investment in the Red and Brown lines will improve reliability and will support additional future train service as ridership grows into the future,” said CTA President Forrest Claypool. “The CTA is committed to continuing to make infrastructure investments across its rail and bus system to upgrade and modernize service and provide greater reliability to customers.”
The work will replace aging equipment and allow CTA to increase power at key areas. The project will rehabilitate electrical systems and replace AC/DC conversion equipment, new cables and switches as well as perform masonry work, install new roofs, doors and floors to weather proof the substations.
The contractor will provide both design and construction services for a total not to exceed $25.6 million and money from CTA’s Capital budget will fund the project which is expected to start in the spring of 2014 and complete by the end of 2015.
The CTA also continues to do substation work at Farwell and Armitage substations. The $66.5 million project includes the construction of three new traction power substations on the Red and Brown Lines and will provide additional capacity to expand service levels. This project is expected to complete by the end of 2014.
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