Kaplan Kirsch served as procurement and contracting counsel to the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) on Phase One of the Red and Purple Modernization Project. The $2.1 billion phase is the largest capital project in CTA’s history.
Delivering a project of this scale required two structural decisions early on. CTA funded the work through a tax increment financing (TIF) district. It then structured the work as a design-build contract—pairing design and construction responsibility under a single team. This project delivery method supports a complete rebuild of significant portions of Chicago’s elevated transit lines and structures. The work is concentrated on the city’s north side. It spans two components: a new bypass and a modernization segment from Lawrence to Bryn Mawr, which adds four new stations.
Throughout this Red and Purple Modernization work, CTA cannot take the lines or facilities out of service for extended periods. The rebuild must proceed around active rail service, not in place of it—a constraint that shaped much of Kaplan Kirsch’s procurement and contracting work on the project.
