O’Hare ‘people mover’ to reopen, nearly 3 years late | Crime-and-Courts

The train is expected to reopen within a month, Chicago Department of Aviation spokeswoman Christine Carrino said. She declined to provide further details until an announcement event on Tuesday.

Work on the train, officially called the Airport Transit System, has been going on for more than six years and the system has been completely shut down since January 2019. With the trains out of service, passengers used shuttles to travel between the terminals. and to and from parking lots, a process some travelers have found confusing or frustrating

The project was supposed to be virtually complete by December 2018, and service disruptions were to be kept “to an absolute minimum” during construction, the Tribune revealed in a 2019 investigation. The project quickly turned into delays. finger and contract disputes between the city and Parsons Construction Group, the prime contractor for the project, according to the Tribune.

In recent months, the project contractor said the pandemic contributed to the delays as various manufacturing and travel restrictions made it more difficult to get parts and experts to travel to Chicago to help with testing. , Carrino said previously. The entrepreneur also “encountered challenges during the testing phase of the project”.

Parsons initially signed a $ 310 million contract for the project, which was later increased to $ 340 million, Carrino said in June. The city had agreed to pay more under two settlement agreements following disputes between the contractor and the city and “unforeseen work in the project initially envisaged”.

The shuttles cost around $ 81 million to operate between November 2018 and the end of February, Carrino said.

The project is funded by a variety of fees, including passenger and car rental fees and the proceeds of general airport tax obligations.

Recently, trains have been running along the tracks for testing, Carrino said on Friday, but the system has not been opened to the public.