Today, the partners of the Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency (CREATE) Program are announcing that Norfolk Southern (NS) has selected their final four engineering structural design teams for the Belt Junction and 80th Street Junction Replacements, CREATE Project EW2. A majority of the nearly 100 structures within the project, many of which were constructed more than a century ago, will require either major rehabilitation or replacement.

With NS managing structural design work for the majority of these 100 structures—overseeing detailed design plans for NS, Belt Railway Company of Chicago, and Metra-owned structures—the commencement of this work represents a major milestone for the CREATE 75th Street Corridor Improvement Project (CREATE 75th St. CIP). Final engineering design work previously commenced for NS’s portion of the EW2 Project’s track in July 2020; final engineering design work previously commenced as well for Metra’s CREATE Project P2’s railroad flyover structure in July 2020 and Union Pacific’s portion of their EW2 Project’s track and structures in September 2022.

“The CREATE Project EW2 is one of the nation’s most ambitious bridge replacement projects,” said Ruth Brown, NS Chief Engineer Bridges & Structures. “Covering nearly 100 structures along a 6-mile stretch of some of the most congested railroads in North America, this is a major undertaking – one that will bridge the divide these structures represented to south side communities for decades as they have approached the end of their useful design life. As Daniel Burnham, the architect of the City’s Master Plan so eloquently stated in 1910, ‘Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir [people’s] blood and probably will not themselves be realized.’ Those words ring so true today with this project."

Due to the complexity of the project’s phasing and volume of structures requiring detailed design plans, NS awarded four design packages following a request for qualifications and a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) networking event at Kennedy-King College, near the CREATE 75th St. CIP on Chicago’s south side. The CREATE partners' commitment to creating economic opportunities in the project area neighborhood is reflected in the 30 percent DBE participation goal for this contracted work.

These four project awards include

Design Package #1: Parsons, Prime Consultant

DBE Team

· American Surveying & Engineering, Ltd. – Topographic survey

· Czaplicki Lopez PLLC – Structural design; Structural inspection

· DB Sterlin Consultants, Inc. – Permitting; Utility design

· JLK Architects – Historic preservation; Historic preservation architecture

· TranSmart, LLC – Lighting design

· Wang Engineering, Inc. – Geotechnical engineering

Design Package #2: Hanson, Prime Consultant

DBE Team

· 2IM Group, LLC – Drainage design

· Atlas Engineering Group, Ltd. – Structural engineering 

· Claassen, White & Associates PC – Survey

· DB Sterlin Consultants Inc – Stakeholder coordination; Drainage design

· OSEH, Inc. – Maintenance of traffic design 

· Pinpoint Precision Engineering – Utilities coordination; Community engagement 

· Program Management & Control Services, LLC – Project controls 

· SE3, LLC – Structural engineering

· Site Design Group, Ltd. – Landscape architecture; Community engagement

· TranSmart, LLC – Lighting design

· Wang Engineering, Inc. – Geotechnical investigations

Design Package #3: Parsons, Prime Consultant

DBE Team

· American Surveying & Engineering, Ltd. – Topographic survey

· Czaplicki Lopez PLLC – Structural design; Structural inspection

· DB Sterlin Consultants, Inc. – Permitting; Utility design

· TranSmart, LLC – Lighting design

· Wang Engineering, Inc. – Geotechnical engineering

Design Package #4: Gannett Fleming, Prime Consultant

DBE Team

· Infrastructure Engineering, Inc. – Drainage & RR Structure Design 

· Pinpoint Precision, LLC – Signing; Striping; Utilities; Community relations

· Sanchez & Associates PC – Survey; LiDAR; Right of Way verification

· TranSmart, LLC– Lighting & traffic signal design

· Wang Engineering, Inc. – Geotechnical borings; Testing; Engineering

* [M/P] denotes Mentor-Protégé discipline in which Prime Consultant will mentor DBE Subconsultant

Importantly, the four selected teams have all committed to direct engagement on the final design of the new structures with the surrounding community throughout the next two years of engineering work. The various teams’ educational commitments range from volunteering through the Chicago Public Schools’ Guest Speaker Series to hiring high school participants through Chicago Public Schools’ Career and Technical Education (CTE) Training Work-Based Learning program to STEM classroom engagement.

“The CREATE partnership continues to build the nation’s largest bridge, not out of concrete and steel, but from human capital within the communities that are our structure’s most important foundations,” said Valerie Nesbitt, NS Director Supplier Inclusion & Sustainability. “We are delivering on the promise to spread economic and educational opportunities throughout the community by deliberately awarding design packages across four consultant teams, adding new DBE team participation, expanding our prime consultant’s mentor-protégé programming for those DBE teams to develop new technical skill sets, and receiving robust commitments from the teams to extensively engage with students throughout neighboring schools.”