Submitted by elisican on Mon, 2011-07-25 06:53
.JPG "Lower Wacker and ramp removal at Van Buren")
Wacker Drive in downtown Chicago is one of the few streets in the nation that runs east to west as well as north to south. It has been a major artery in the heart of Chicago’s downtown for more than 80 years: As of 2009, 60,000 vehicles traveled daily on its two levels, Upper and Lower Wacker Drive.
Now it is getting a major facelift from a two-phase construction project dubbed Revive Wacker Drive.
Revive Wacker Drive is a multimillion-dollar undertaking to restore crumbling infrastructure and make necessary safety improvements, and has been in the works for more than a decade.
Phase one
The first phase of the project in 2001 to 2002 involved the reconstruction of the two levels of Wacker Drive, from Michigan Avenue on the east to Randolph Street on the west, and three separate construction contracts totaling $180 million.
“We learned a lot from the first phase about the importance of coordination in scheduling the relocation of affected utilities,” said Dan Burke, chief bridge engineer. “We’ve successfully incorporated those lessons into the second phase by making [utility relocation] an advance separate phase of the work.”
Relocating the utilities first has minimized the time the roads were closed, said Johnny Morcos, project manager.
“The ultimate goal is to minimize impact to all users,” Morcos said.
Another trick in lessening user impact is to work on one-way opposite direction streets at the same time, which minimizes redirection of traffic and ensures that pedestrians are never rerouted more than half a block in either direction, according to Morcos.
Phase two
The second phase involves four separate contracts and four major jobs. Morcos said that was done for a reason.
“When you make it three or four ‘smaller’ contracts instead of one mega contract, it opens up the playing field to more contractors, creating better bids and more competition,” he said.
The first contract for $25 million is with Benchmark Construction and is near completion. Work commenced in January 2010 to install new storm and sanitary sewer service on Lower Wacker Drive from Randolph Street to Van Buren.
The second contract involved a joint venture by FH Paschen and Cabo Construction totaling $95 million. The construction involves the interchange with Wacker Driver and the Congress Expressway and has been underway since May 2010.
Morcos cited one challenge of relocating a 14-ft-diameter sewer in order to lower the ramps from Wacker Drive to the Congress Expressway Interchange. A tunnel-boring machine was brought in from New Zealand.
“It was a tunneling operation as opposed to a typical open cut because the size of the sewer—a 14-foot-diameter bore with a 12-foot inside diameter—made things challenging,” Morcos said.
Lowering the ramps and pressing them below grade will create 3.5 acres of new green space that will become part of the Chicago Park District, Burke said.
The third contract for the reconstruction of Upper and Lower Wacker Drive from Randolph Street to Monroe Street is about halfway complete. It was awarded in January 2011 to McHugh Construction, which bid $54 million.
While creating the viaduct structure for this job, Morcos said they have experienced three concrete deck pours that average about 1200 cu yd each—the equivalent of 200 trucks’ worth of concrete.
The fourth contract is going out for bid in late summer 2011.
“We advertise, and whoever wants to do the work puts in a bid,” Burke said. “We then choose the lowest responsible bidder.”
That contract is for the reconstruction of Upper and Lower Wacker Drive from Monroe Street to Van Buren. It is anticipated to begin in January 2012 and finish by the end of 2012, and is largely an extension of the third contract’s work.
Morcos said the third and fourth contracts are an example of splitting the work to stagger construction and minimize effects on drivers and pedestrians.
“Instead of having one big contract for the entire eight blocks, we broke the eight-block stretch into two contracts,” Morcos said.
Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity
Revive Wacker Drive is huge in scope; on a daily basis, Burke said, there are 150 to 200 tradesmen working on site between the three actively ongoing contracts, and about 30 to 50 engineers involved on the design side and in various capacities.
“It affects any trade out there—concrete finishes, laborers, ironworkers, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, masons,” Burke said. “It’s a very broad-reaching public sector project.”
However, unlike some massive construction projects, Burke said they have stayed on track as much as possible.
“We worked full pace right through one of the coldest winters on record in Chicago history and maintained project schedule,” Burke said.
They also have kept the project—paid for with Federal Highway Administration and state of Illinois highway funds—within budget; in fact, they will likely finish under budget.
“The total project was initially estimated at $360 million; at this point, it’s looking like it will run $300 million,” Burke said.
This is a once-in-a-lifetime project for a lot of the tradesmen involved in Revive Wacker Drive, Morcos said.
“A lot of the guys talk about how you only do a project like this—a job of this magnitude, a very high-profile, challenging project—once or twice in your career if you’re lucky,” Morcos said. “Everyone working on this is very aware of that.”
Mary Beth Nevulis is associate editor for Infrastructure Solutions. Nevulis can be reached at mnevulis@sgcmail.com or 847.954.7970.
