City: Chicago

With approximately 2.7 million residents, Chicago, Illinois, is the third most populated city in the United States and the gateway to the U.S. Midwest, acting as an international hub of finance, commerce, industry, technology, telecommunications and transportation.

After years of wear and tear, the city’s O’Hare International Airport—the world’s second-busiest airport—required modernization to host its projected 46.3 million international and domestic visitors and its new American Airlines terminal, the facility’s largest airline, carrying more than 45 percent of all traffic.

The City of Chicago needed a team of aviation experts to modernize the facility without disrupting its usual operations. After a competitive bidding process, AECOM was hired as lead program manager for US$ 2.9-billion Phase 1 of the project, which includes:

• Reconfiguring intersecting runways into a parallel layout to increase efficiency and capacity;
• Designing and constructing three new runways;
• Relocating three miles of existing Union Pacific Railroad tracks;
• Relocating the water detention basin on the south airfield;
• And additional updates required to complete the full modernization.

When completed on time and under-budget in October 2013, O’Hare International Airport was updated with the following key features:

• New 7,500-foot by 150-foot (2,286-meter by 46-meter) Runway 9L-27R on the north side of the airport;
• 2,861-foot (872-meter) extension to existing Runway 9R-27L, now known as Runway 10L-28R;
• And, a new 10,600-foot (3,231-meter) Group VI Runway 10C-28C on the airport’s south side.

AECOM’s creative design and critical thinking skills dramatically modernized Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport to increase efficiency and capacity.

This project was awarded honors from the Illinois Engineering Companies Association as well as the Construction Industry Service Corporation for its innovative approach to solving a complex problem in the heart of America’s Midwest.

Situated along Chicago’s 14-mile lakeshore are the city’s 10 municipal harbors—each with their own specific neighborhood look and, which together, constitutes the nation’s largest municipal harbor system. The harbors proudly represent the connection between Lake Michigan and the City of Chicago, and have long been touted as the city’s “best kept secret.”

Just south of McCormick Place within Burnham Park is the nation’s newest and greenest harbor—the 31st Street Harbor—which transformed an underused portion of Lake Michigan lakeshore into a new public amenity. AECOM provided project management, landscape architecture, coastal engineering, civil engineering, structural engineering, geotechnical engineering, underpass architecture and LEED consulting services for the harbor, one of the largest built in Chicago in the last 50 years.

Unlike traditional harbors that are typically commercial ventures, the project took the approach of integrating the 1000-slip marina with a park, melding high-tech engineering with thoughtful place-making. The design concept was inspired by the historical, cultural and environmental conditions along the shoreline of Lake Michigan.

Built partially on grade and partly as a green roof over a harbor services building, the new park-and-play space design provides for a variety of spatial experiences for users, including:

• A 63,300-square-foot accessible green roof; a
• Great lawn that provides spectacular views of the city, harbor, and lake;
• Naturalized garden edges and low-water shoreline plantings; and
• Enhanced waterfront promenade.

With its focus on public-realm design, the development of the 31st Street Harbor serves as a landmark for those on water and on land as it combines natural aesthetic treatments with engineered function and efficiency.

AECOM provided construction management services for a new, seven-story pre-cast elevated parking structure at Midway Airport in Chicago, Illinois. The structure contains 6,300 parking spaces, as well as office space for the parking management company. AECOM also managed the construction of a new shuttle bus roadway, which begins at the garage, carries over busy Cicero Avenue, and continues on to the terminal.

Space availability and scheduling presented the greatest challenges in the construction of this facility. The Chicago Department of Aviation required phased demolition of a limited number of parking spaces in the existing parking lot, making the space available for the pre-cast erection and material staging very constrained.

Timing was critical because the construction created an extreme shortage of parking spaces at an airport where the parking lots are full every day. A fast-track method of producing and approving pre-cast shop drawings was used to shorten the lead-time for production. Another timesaving measure was the use of pre-topped tees for the floors, which eliminated the time required to install lightweight floor toppings.

Chicago’s $475 million Millennium Park is a destination rich in art and recreational opportunity. It showcases an impressive collection of art, music, architecture and landscape architecture. The park received more than a million visitors in the two months after it opened. Notable elements include Frank Gehry’s Jay Pritzker Pavilion, the 11,000-seat Great Lawn, which features a state-of-the-art audio reinforcement and enhancement system for outdoor concerts, and Jaume Plensa’s crowd-pleasing, interactive Crown Fountain. More than 600 trees were planted in the park, and a 10-acre formal ‘Lurie Gardens’ designed by noted landscape architect Kathryn Gustafson provides a changing experience for all seasons and times of day.

AECOM provided program management services, working as an extension of the Public Building Commission of Chicago on this four-year program.