en.Wedoany.com Reported - Fluor Corporation and Walsh Construction have recently achieved substantial completion of Phase One of the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) Red and Purple Line Modernization (RPM) project. The contract, valued at $2.1 billion, is the largest completed capital project in CTA history.
The project rebuilt over 2 miles of century-old elevated railway between Lawrence and Bryn Mawr, replacing four stations with accessible facilities, with permanent structures opening in summer 2025. Construction was carried out while trains carrying tens of thousands of passengers daily continued to operate. Since breaking ground in 2019, the joint venture has worked in constrained environments along a narrow elevated corridor through residential neighborhoods without disrupting service.
A key component of the project is the new Red-Purple Bypass at Clark Junction, a grade-separated structure that replaced an old at-grade conflict point, enhancing capacity for the Red, Purple, and Brown Lines. The elevated structure uses a combination of steel plate girders and precast prestressed concrete girders. The project also installed 11 miles of new digital track circuit signaling systems, establishing a modern control platform for future upgrades. During construction, deep shafts were drilled 60 to 80 feet underground and filled with concrete to form foundations for new track support columns.
The delivery consortium was led by the Fluor-Walsh joint venture for construction, with Stantec handling design, Hitachi providing signaling systems, and Meade serving as the electrical contractor.
Project financing was based on a Full Funding Grant Agreement with the Federal Transit Administration, committing over $1 billion in federal funds, with approximately $957 million from the Core Capacity program. During the federal government shutdown in late 2025, the White House Office of Management and Budget suspended funding pending a review of contracting rules, and the CTA provided over 1,000 pages of information as requested by federal authorities. The agency sued the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Transit Administration in March 2026, and after a federal court issued a temporary restraining order, payments resumed, with the CTA subsequently submitting a $114.5 million invoice for project costs.
Substantial completion was confirmed in early July 2026, with final completion scheduled for November 2026. The subsequent Red Line Extension project plans to extend the line approximately 5.5 miles south from its current terminus, with an estimated cost of about $5.7 billion, targeting a 2026 start and 2030 completion. Additionally, after the new elevated structure replaced the old embankment, approximately ten city blocks of public space were freed up beneath the tracks, and the CTA has launched a design and land sale solicitation for reclaiming this space.
