Clark Construction set to start $112 million job turning Chicago Union Station's mail platforms into level boarding

Amtrak is delivering the job as design-bid-build, it said in a Nov. 9 announcement. Clark holds the general contract. WSP USA, the designer of record, stays on for construction-phase services, and HNTB won a project manager and construction manager contract; its staff will work inside Amtrak's in-house Capital Delivery Department. Amtrak did not give the value of Clark's contract on its own.

Platforms 30 through 38 were built to move mail and parcels for a post office that sat above the tracks until it relocated. The rebuild will let passengers step onto trains without ramps, stairs or lifts, and adds a climate-controlled waiting room with restrooms for tracks 30 and up. Amtrak says the extra platform space will also carry trains while other platforms are rebuilt in later phases of station work.

Funding comes from three pots: a $49.6 million Federal-State Partnership grant from fiscal 2022-23, which the Federal Railroad Administration oversees; $40 million from the federal budget for fiscal 2025; and $22.4 million in local match paid by Amtrak, Cook County and the city. Amtrak filed the grant application jointly with the Illinois transportation department, IDOT.

It is the first project in Amtrak's Chicago Hub Improvement Program (CHIP) to reach construction. Amtrak has not published a phasing plan. The only dates in its announcement are the 30-month duration and a start of major construction before the end of the year, which FOX 32 Chicago also reported.