cheltzel

II am not trying to say that all the blame lies with Parsons (the prime contractor for the project). I am sure that our wonderful city government would end up with its share of blame. Assuming of course if we would ever have a real audit of the project with the findings published for all to see.

It is just that the excuses being put forward simply do not make any sense. If you look at the Parsons website and their history of big projects, they have significant experience is severely cold climates (e.g. they built, operated and managed the entire operations base in Prudhoe Bay for the Alaska pipeline project). They have experience with building large international airports. So superficially it looks like a really solid choice for the prime contractor on the project.

https://www.parsons.com/about/timeline/

threeoh

When the city took Parsons to contract mediation for falling behind, the result was the city paid Parsons millions of more dollars and agreed to extend the project timeline and authorize 24/7 shutdowns.

That's a good hint that it was a poorly scoped project.

cheltzel

I saw that as well. Here is a good article in the Tribune form a couple of weeks ago summarizing the highpoints (lowpoints ??) if the project (link). Specifically the verbiage listed under the January 2014 heading as the excerpt from the RFP "the Contractor shall accomplish its work without interruption to the ORD-ATS service, except for scheduled shutdowns of limited duration approved in advance by the City". That sounds good, but we do not know the other work in the project scope. If there are fundamentally basic changes required in the system that require replacement of the control systems, changes to roadbed/rails, etc it could be impossible to complete the work without significant interruptions.

Buster CT1K

I am really glad that I moved away from Chicago before the pandemic. This was supposed to be done by the end of 2019! A really crummy problem for Chicago fliers, and anyone seeking to connect from international to domestic at ORD.

threeoh

As a Chicago-based flyer, I've barely noticed. I normally arrive at the terminal I'm flying out of, so no need for inter-terminal transport. I've only ended up taking the bus once or twice, and it wasn't a huge hassle.

I think the bigger impact has been on T5->domestic connecting pax and people trying to pick up rental cars.

_kurt

Plus those of us who originate at ORD but do not live near the blue line. Plenty of people drive to the airport and use remote parking; for me it’s 2+ hours quicker per round-trip than public transit. Or it was when the ATS was running.

legalalien

I'm Chicago burbs-based, and I really like the new parking garage at the rental car center, even after a recent price hike. Busses make it a bit less attractive.

threeoh

I don't live near the blue line.

Ok. For the affected lots (E, F, H) we're talking about like 5,000 parking spots at an airport with 230,000 enplanements per day. But yes, Chicago-based, on-airport, non-G. remote parking users have been negatively affected.

_kurt

Thank you for acknowledging my petty concern Would now also be a good time to speak up for the approximately 200 people per day who use the O’Hare Transfer Metra station?

threeoh

Lol I think it's more like 100 per weekday.

I bet the number of people arriving by Pace bus #250 is higher than that.

But true, all negatively impacted by the ATS shutdown!

airmotive

I stumbled blindly into this show, arriving from AMS and thinking an overnight at the ORD Hilton would be a nice, stress-free way to spend an evening before heading home to IND.

OMFG.

Dear Chicago, who put the animals in charge of the zoo?

The level of chaos is, as an American watching foreigners trying to navigate this mess, EMBARRASSING!

As an American trying to navigate this mess, shame on you. As a side note, $10.50 for a Bud Light draft? Double shame on you ORD Hilton.

threeoh

Can you be more specific about your experience?

Most reports on this thread (except for the first two months when it was chaos) have been that the buses are slightly annoying but work just fine.

Snuggs

Yes, it is an embarrassing circus, but we hid that discussion in another thread….

ords

I was told good news and I'll leave it at that.

legalalien

We'll have the train back this century? Yay!!