The Chicago Transit Authority and Walsh-Fluor Design-Build Team, the contractor for the CTA’s Red and Purple Modernization (RPM) Phase One Project, announced in June that a second-grade class won a contest to name the overhead gantry system for the Red and Purple Line structures. The system will be named the Windy City Gantry thanks to students at Goudy Elementary School in the city’s Uptown neighborhood. The contest was created as an educational opportunity for young students to learn more about the project happening next to their school as well as to learn about construction in general.
The gantry, at 285 ft long, is about the size of a 747 aircraft and allows the new Red and Purple Line track structures to be built more quickly and with fewer impacts on the community during construction.