In+Motion_Summer 2022

O’Hare ATS continued from p 1

Terminal 5 ”, noted the City’s Chief Development Officer, Robert Hoxie. “ The additional functionality of the O’Hare ATS reduces the volume of shuttle buses on our terminal curbsides and roadways and provides a more efficient and reliable journey for hundreds of thousands of airport users every week.” Lea+Elliott, as a subconsultant to DMJM Aviation Partners JV (an AECOM-led JV), has supported the City’s development of the Project, providing planning, conceptual design, procurement, and implementation oversight services since January 2013. Lea+Elliott has also provided engineering consulting services on the ATS since the original opening in 1993. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the ATS was first designed and installed, Lea+Elliott provided systems design and implementation oversight services, and has continued providing similar services in the intervening years.

the land use surroundings of Runway 9C/27C were fully compatible, resulted in the development of a Multi-Modal Facility (MMF) housing public parking, a consolidated rental car center, connections to regional rail, and a bus shuttle transfer point. The City’s vision included transporting all MMF users on the ATS (eliminating certain roadway buses), which necessitated an expansion of the ATS to a station at the MMF and certain other ATS upgrades. This led to the O’Hare ATS Expansion & Modernization Project (the Project). The Project included extending the dual-lane guideway terminus approximately 2,000 feet north to the MMF, replacing the original fleet of 15, single-car vehicles with a fleet of 12, married-triplet vehicles; replacing the fixed block Automatic Train Control (ATC) system with an automatic Communications- Based Train Control (CBTC) system; and installing, replacing, and upgrading various other elements of the operating system and fixed facilities. “The extension and modernization of the O’Hare Airport Transit System was essential to supporting a number of major capital projects, including the commissioning of new Runway 9C-27C, the Multi-Modal Facility, and the ongoing expansion of

Image credit: City of Chicago

In Motion

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