To the city of Chicago, its elevated train system is more than just a mass-transit system – it's the arteries that keep the city's lifeblood circulating from work to home and back again. In that respect, any contractor working on the system would have to be as careful and skilled as a surgeon to make improvements without interrupting the flow of people through it.

As the prime contractor for the majority of the station work on the city's $530 million capacity expansion of the Brown Line, FHP Tectonics Corp. is getting the job done skillfully and carefully.

The project will increase the capacity of the Brown Line, which is operated by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) and runs between the city's downtown and northwestern neighborhoods. The Brown Line is approximately nine miles long and includes 19 stations, serving more than 66,000 passengers each weekday, according to the CTA.

FHP Tectonics Corp.'s role on the project involves 14 of the 18 stations being reconstructed along the Brown Line, as well as the reconstruction of the track structure at the Belmont and Fullerton stations. The CTA says the line needs to be upgraded to handle a greater load of passengers, and to remove “slow zones” where trains creep at less than 15 miles per hour due to the deteriorating condition of the tracks. The upgraded Brown Line will be able to accommodate longer, eight-car trains and be accessible per the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Right Men for the Job
Larry Van Zuidam, senior project manager for FHP Tectonics Corp., says the company won the contract for the Brown Line thanks to its strengths in preplanning.  “I think it was the effort in preparing our proposal,” he says. “Our estimating department is very good at what they do.”

Headquartered in Chicago as an affiliate of F.H. Paschen S.N. Nielsen, FHP Tectonics has a history of completing projects for the CTA. F.H. Paschen Inc. extended the elevated line from downtown Chicago to Midway Airport in 1985. With affiliate offices in California and Florida, the company performs design/build, general contracting, preconstruction and self-performance work for clients in sectors including transportation, healthcare, commercial, civil and multifamily residential.

F.H. Paschen S.N. Nielsen was founded in the mid-1970s, and originally performed remodeling and rehabilitation work in and around Chicago. After branching out into the heavy construction market through the CTA, F.H. Paschen Inc. took on a series of highway and bridge projects. The company acquired S.N. Nielsen, a long-time Chicago general contractor focused on the healthcare, educational and institutional markets, in 1992.

Van Zuidam says FHP Tectonics brings a collaborative spirit to each of its projects. “We have a very good relationship with all of our subcontractors on all of our projects,” he says. The company achieves this through good communication and timely payments, he says. In addition, FHP Tectonics strives to keep its subcontractors informed at all times about the status of its projects, and it works to “handle every project as a team” with its subcontractors and vendors.

Hustle and Bustle
FHP Tectonics' contracts for the Brown Line station upgrades include demolition of the existing buildings, constructing new facilities, rebuilding portions of the track to allow for wider platforms and relocating historic stationhouses. Although the company has experience in this type of work, an added challenge is the fact that the Brown Line continues to operate throughout the project, making timing one of the most crucial elements of the job, Van Zuidam says.

“Probably the most difficult part is performing all this construction with the stations remaining open and dealing with the public and scheduling the work,” he says.

Because the trains are still carrying thousands of passengers through the stations all day long, FHP Tectonics has to be careful to schedule the majority of the work during non-peak hours. Typically, Van Zuidam says, the company schedules work on the tracks and stationhouses between 9:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.

This makes working on the Brown Line a bit more difficult than the average project, and requires a lot of balancing  to make the schedules work. “Basically, it's tremendous amount of coordination with the subcontractors, suppliers and CTA,” he says.

Keep An Eye Out
Keeping subcontractors and suppliers in motion and on schedule while trains are still running is in itself a kind of balancing act. But, physically working on tracks elevated high above the street while trains are still using them is an actual balancing act. “The working conditions during the day? You have to be on your toes at all times,” Van Zuidam says.

Safety is of paramount importance during a project like the Brown Line expansion due to the unique conditions, he says. Workers have to be conscious at all times of where they are and where the trains are. Flaggers alert the workers of oncoming trains and slow down the trains through construction zones, but between switching tracks and the electrified third rail, safety training is of the utmost importance.

“A train could be coming from any direction, because they do switch tracks occasionally,” Van Zuidam says. “Everyone that works out here is required to be rail-safety trained.”

The CTA provides that training, which has to be renewed every year. “The one-day program teaches workers how to work around the third rail, how to walk across the tracks and how to signal trains to stop in case of an emergency,” Van Zuidam says.

“You always have to be totally conscious that you're on tracks that are designed for trains – they're not designed for people,” he adds.

On-Track on the Tracks
Despite the challenges, Van Zuidam says FHP Tectonics is on track to finish much of the construction on schedule. Five stations on the north end of the Brown Line have been completed already. “We actually opened all of those stations ahead of schedule,” he notes.

At the busy Belmont and Fullerton stations, work is about 35 percent complete, he says, with the Belmont and Fullerton stations expected to be completed in December 2009. Another contract for the reconstruction of three stations will be finished by early spring 2008.

Van Zuidam says the company's reputation for thinking ahead has proven to be the prime driver to keeping the entire project on track. “I would say that you can never be too prepared in planning and coordination,” he says.