T.Y. Lin International Wins Prestigious American Council of Engineering Companies Awards for Dan Ryan Red Line Track Renewal Project and Wacker Drive and Congress Parkway Reconstruction

T.Y. Lin International (TYLI), a globally recognized full-service infrastructure consulting firm, announces that its Chicago office has received two Honor Awards from the Illinois Chapter of the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC IL). The two award-winning TYLI projects are the Chicago Transit Authority’s (CTA) $425 million track and station renewal project for the Red Line along the Dan Ryan Expressway, and the Chicago Department of Transportation’s $303 million Wacker Drive and Congress Parkway Reconstruction. The firm’s CTA Dan Ryan Red Line Reconstruction project was also named ACEC IL’s 2014 Eminent Conceptor Award winner. This top honor is chosen each year from among all Honor Award winners and given to a project that demonstrates a high degree of merit and ingenuity, contributes to the advancement of the private practice of engineering, and enhances the economic and social welfare of the general public. TYLI and the firm’s project partners accepted the awards on Friday, February 8th at the ACEC IL annual awards luncheon.

“T.Y. Lin International has been involved in some truly remarkable projects,” said Heather Gaffney, P.E., S.E., TYLI Senior Vice President and Central Region Director. “We are honored to have worked with the Chicago Department of Transportation and the Chicago Transit Authority to deliver these two significant improvements for the City of Chicago.”

About the Award-Winning Projects:

The Dan Ryan Red Line Reconstruction
TYLI served as Project Design Oversight Lead and Designer of Record for Segment A of the Dan Ryan Red Line Track Renewal Project. The final outcome was a project that delivered over 10 miles of completely reconstructed double track on a system segment which, prior to construction, had approximately 40% of the line under slow zones. The improvement resulted in cutting the commute between 95th Street and Roosevelt Road by 20 minutes. Given the project’s extremely aggressive schedule and access constraints, which included the fact that the majority of the rail corridor is located in the middle of the I-90/94 Dan Ryan Expressway, the design team was charged with incorporating elements into the project that minimized long-term maintenance while considering installation methods that could be executed expeditiously. With nearly 250,000 riders on an average weekday being rerouted with alternative service, it was essential to complete the project on time and to limit disruptions of service with future maintenance operations.

The Wacker Drive Viaduct and Ramps from the Congress Parkway Interchange to the Adams Street Intersection
TYLI was the Consultant for Design Engineering Services for the Wacker Drive Viaduct and Ramps from the Congress Parkway Interchange to the Adams Street Intersection. The Wacker Drive Viaduct is a multiple-span reinforced concrete structure that carries six lanes of traffic over a lower-level, four-lane mainline roadway and adjacent service drives. The upper-level and lower-level roadways serve as the main Loop Area distribution and collector roadways to and from the Eisenhower Expressway, North Michigan Avenue business district and Lake Shore Drive. This roadway, bridge and tunnel project is one of the most complicated ever completed by the City and involved complex staging to keep 60,000 vehicles and 150,000 pedestrians moving through the construction zone each day.