ACEC Award-Winning, Mile Long Bridge

F.H. Paschen is delighted to share the continuing success of the Mile Long Bridge, a project that has received an award from the American Council of Engineering Companies of Illinois (ACEC). This achievement is a testament to our commitment to building and improving the highways millions of drivers use every year.

Building the Mile Long Bridge was a monumental task. As a critical component of the Central Tri-State Tollway (I-294) reconstruction, the project involved replacing and widening two 65-year-old structures while keeping existing traffic lanes operational. Spanning two railroads, three waterways, local roads, and major distribution centers for UPS and BNSF Railway, the bridge presented unique challenges. To address these challenges, our dedicated team, working in close collaboration with project partners, implemented innovative strategies. The use of fewer and longer spans for each bridge reduced the impact on the sensitive aquatic ecosystem, waterways, railroads, and roads below. This approach also minimized the number of deck joints, contributing to the bridge’s durability and extending its service life to 100 years.

The project’s design included flex lanes, allowing for adaptive transit during peak travel periods and catering to safety-related needs in emergencies. Construction began in the spring of 2019, with the completion of the new northbound bridge in November 2020, and the southbound bridge finished in November 2022. Throughout this timeline, the existing bridges were replaced without disrupting Tollway customers, showcasing our commitment to efficiency and minimal inconvenience.

The Mile Long Bridge stands as a symbol of F.H. Paschen’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of conventional engineering. As we celebrate this achievement, F.H. Paschen remains committed to delivering excellence in every project and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the world of construction and engineering.

At F.H. Paschen, we are thrilled to celebrate the success of the 43rd Street Pedestrian Bridge, a project that has earned an award from the American Council of Engineering Companies of Illinois (ACEC). This achievement is a testament to our commitment to innovation, technical ability, and collaborative problem-solving, as well as the positive impact we strive to make in the communities we serve.

Constructing the 43rd Street Pedestrian Bridge was no small feat. Spanning over six active railroad tracks and a major highway, the project presented unprecedented challenges. To address these hurdles, our team, working closely with project partners, showcased exceptional ingenuity by creating a temporary bridge. This ingenious solution not only minimized disruptions to the railroads but also served as a protective shield over the Metra Electric Line. By reducing disturbances, we not only saved valuable time but also achieved cost efficiencies related to track closures.

The bridge’s design, featuring twin 30-degree inclined arches, challenges traditional engineering norms and showcases F.H. Paschen’s ability to navigate complex geometric challenges. We prioritized social, economic, and sustainable considerations throughout the project. The bridge’s design encourages non-vehicle access, promoting sustainable living and enhancing community accessibility. Our approach minimized construction site impact, used existing pathways, and incorporated sustainable practices, contributing to both economic savings and positive environmental impacts.

Our success in completing the project on time and within budget was made possible through tireless collaboration with diverse stakeholders, including Metra, CN, and federal, state, and local authorities. This collaborative spirit not only met technical demands but exceeded the owner’s requirements, setting a new standard for engineering excellence.

The 43rd Street Pedestrian Bridge stands as a testament to F.H. Paschen’s commitment to improving the communities that it serves. As we celebrate this achievement, F.H. Paschen remains committed to delivering excellence in every project and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the world of construction and engineering.

The Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership (The Partnership), the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) and F.H. Paschen are working together to create the talent pipeline needed to continue building a bright future for Chicago.

The construction industry remains a driver of economic growth. The third week in September is designated as Construction Appreciation Week, during Workforce Development Month, celebrating the hardworking men and women of American construction who are instrumental in development of our infrastructure.

CDOT is working on several roadway changes and mobility improvement projects in Chicago’s Jackson Park that will support the Obama Presidential Center and the Chicago Park District’s South Lakefront Framework Plan. The project will increase green space, improve connectivity and safety for people walking and biking, and accommodate future traffic demand.

The Partnership, CDOT and F.H. Paschen are collaborating to bring these career-pathway jobs to Chicago, connecting local residents with construction jobs on the project. This collaboration aims to address today’s workforce shortage; the need to diversify the skilled trades where people of color and women have been historically underrepresented; and the need for career-ladder jobs with family wealth building wages and benefits.

CDOT awarded a construction contract for the Jackson Park Transportation Improvements to F.H. Paschen, which is meeting the unprecedented workforce goals for area residents on this state-funded project, via IDOT’s Highway Construction Careers Training Program. The contract includes goals of hiring 15 percent of residents of neighborhoods adjacent to Jackson Park and 50 percent Chicago residents. The project also provides opportunities for on-the-job training and creates pre-apprenticeships for local residents.

To apply for these positions, local area residents can go the project’s website: https://jacksonparkimprovements.org/jobs

On Thursday, June 23^rd, construction started on the 72,000 square ft., four-story senior housing apartment building for low-income seniors ages 62 and over in Bellwood, IL.

The development and construction team made up of F.H. Paschen, Evergreen Real Estate Group, and Weese Langley Weese Architects LTD, who partnered with the Village of Bellwood to design and construct the 80-unit facility.

“It’s a beautiful day in Bellwood,” said Mayor Andre Harvey. “We needed to do something more for the seniors in our community. We had a vision of what we wanted – a transformative development – and thanks to the help and collaboration from our development, design, construction, and financing partners, it’s becoming a reality.”

Located at the intersection of 25^th Avenue and Washington Avenue, the building fills a critical need for the Village of Bellwood and seniors in the community. The lot had previously been a Walgreens, but has been vacant for 11 years.

“F.H. Paschen is excited to partner with this team and the Village of Bellwood on this project. We look forward to delivering a first-class apartment building for the Bellwood community,” said F.H. Paschen Senior Vice President, Leo Wright, who attended the groundbreaking.

Speakers at the groundbreaking included Bellwood Mayor Andre Harvey, Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson, Illinois Housing Development Authority Executive Director Kristin Faust, State Representative Will Guzzardi.

ABOUT THE COMPANIES:

F.H. Paschen is a general contractor, construction manager, and design-builder with over 115 years of experience in the construction industry, serving both public and private customers and clients across the country.

Evergreen Real Estate Group (Evergreen) is an affordable housing developer whose portfolio includes new construction and rehabilitation projects for both family and senior housing.

Weese Langley Weese Architects LTD, is a well-established Chicago architectural firm, with a long history of designing affordable housing projects.

F.H. Paschen, a national general contractor, construction manager, and design-builder has expanded their Midwestern footprint and opened an office in downtown Detroit. Located in the historic Globe Building, the new office address is 407 E. Fort Street, Suite 500, Detroit, MI 48226.

In a parallel move, F.H. Paschen announced the hiring of Ken Swartz. As the Regional General Manager, Ken Swartz will oversee the operations of the new office. Ken brings 40 years of experience in the construction industry and has been part of the Detroit Metropolitan business community for over 28 years.

The office and hiring announcements were featured in Crain’s Detroit Business.

The County of Fairfax, Virginia Department of Public Works and Environmental Services awarded F.H. Paschen the Award of Excellence for the Building Design and Construction of the Central and Dulles Maintenance Facility – Salt Dome projects.

“We’re honored to receive this award,” said Bill Rocha, General Manager of the F.H. Paschen Mid-Atlantic office. “It’s a testament to our project team, our subcontractors, and our great partners at the county.” General Contractor and Construction Manager F.H. Paschen has been in the Greater D.C. region for over 20 years.

F.H. Paschen is accustomed to building critical infrastructure in and around Fairfax County, completing the construction of nine escalator canopies for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), community, and government centers in Loudoun County, and several upgrades and renovations to local schools and park districts.

The Award of Excellence was presented at a virtual award ceremony on Friday, April 9^th.

F.H. Paschen accepted the 2019 Project Award from the Construction Management Association of America (CMAA) for the American Airlines Concourse L/Stinger. 

We constructed a new concourse capable of handling five regional aircrafts with a pedestrian bridge tying into existing Terminal 3. The new facility includes hold rooms, concession areas, restrooms, airline support spaces, mechanical spaces, and circulation areas. 

In addition to the complex nature of building on an active airfield, Paschen had to devise innovative methods for erecting a nearly 600’ long walkway without impacting the gate operations of six different carriers. To address these challenges, Paschen, in collaboration with the design engineers, fabricator, erector and American Airlines, came up with a design for the bridge that would allow the walkway to be erected in three segments. The pieces were originally built on the ground, so they could eventually be hoisted up in the air and placed. 

This award joins the 2019 Construction Industry Service Corporation (CISCO) – Top Project Chicago, New Construction, American Airlines Concourse L / Stinger. 

We are excited to announce that the Barkowski Family has established the John Barkowski Memorial Scholarship. The scholarship will provide financial assistance to a graduating Westinghouse Paschen Scholar who will be furthering their education in a field of engineering.

John took great pride in his work and was a leader to many during his time at F.H. Paschen. He was always committed to training and educating the next generation of builders. To continue John’s legacy of excellence and hard work, the Barkowski Family will grant a scholarship to a graduating Paschen Scholar who best exemplifies the character and values of John.

F.H. Paschen and Westinghouse College Prep are entering the fourth year of a successful partnership and will welcome the new class of Paschen Scholars during the Hard Hat Ceremony on Thursday, May 30th. During this ceremony, Paschen will honor the graduates of the inaugural Paschen Scholars class and will present the John Barkowski Memorial Scholarship to the awarded senior. 

F.H. Paschen accepted the 2019 Infrastructure Construction Award from the Chicago Building Congress (CBC) for the Chicago Department of Transportation 41st Street Pedestrian Bridge. 

The 1,470-foot pedestrian bridge spans over Lake Shore Drive and connects Chicago’s Bronzeville Neighborhood to the lakefront. The project’s construction consisted of the removal and reconstruction of pedestrian paths, bike trails and sidewalks, roadway lighting relocation, and furnishing and installing lighting on the bridge structure. 

The cultural and community significance of the bridge was highlighted in the Chicago Tribune. 

This award joins the Illinois Road and Transportation Builders Association (IRTBA) Contractor of the Year honor for the construction of the 41st Street Pedestrian Bridge. 

F.H. Paschen celebrated the opening of the North Terminal and the 95th Street Pedestrian Bridge of the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) 95th Street Red Line Station Improvement Project alongside joint venture partner Milhouse Engineering & Construction. A skilled, diverse workforce of over 1200 executed this work, including residents from the local community who will enjoy access to the improved station regularly.

For the 95th Street Station Improvement, F.H. Paschen’s self-perform workforce exceeded all workforce goals and included a 73 percent minority workforce with over 85,000 man-hours worked.

Paschen Milhouse Joint Venture IV on the 95th Street Station Improvement exemplifies Paschen’s continued effective partnership with Milhouse, teaming their staff’s complementary experience and skills to execute this challenging design–build transit project.  Milhouse has been an integral part of both the construction and design engineering teams.

Committed to growth and building capacity in diverse and local businesses, Paschen and Milhouse have awarded over 30 percent of this project’s subcontracts to disadvantaged businesses.

Elements of Phase Two included major renovations and additions to the existing North Terminal, widened bus circulation pavement, a widened north bus bridge, bus canopy systems, improved vertical circulation elements in the station, and commuter bridge improvements. A new pedestrian bridge above 95th Street connects the terminals as a means of safe passage for commuters between the bus and rail services.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This Holiday season, F.H. Paschen and Stalworth Underground partnered with St. James AME Church and local grocer, Pete’s Produce, to provide Thanksgiving dinner for 25 families living in the Chatham, West Chesterfield, Roseland, and Auburn Gresham communities.

We have spent a considerable amount of time in those communities as we modernized the Chicago Transit Authority’s 95th Street Station. It’s important to us as an organization to serve and give back to the communities in which we have impacted so greatly with our construction.

This past Monday, November 19th, our project team celebrated our time in those communities with the neighbors of the 95th Street Station.

F.H. Paschen’s CTA Project Executive, Matt Moss, was on WGN Radio discussing the 95th Street Terminal Improvement Project.

The Paschen Milhouse Joint Venture credits the Mayor’s Office, CTA President Dorval Carter Jr. and city officials for their leadership and cooperation on this transformative project.

To listen to the interview, click here.

More Versatility. More Paschen.

Peoples Gas hired McKissack & McKissack and FH Paschen, which partnered with Epstein, to design and build the new facility. The firms have committed a projected total spend of more than 50 percent with minority-, women- and veteran-owned businesses. They also have committed to hiring Chicago residents for at least 50 percent of the jobs during construction.

The facility will reduce maintenance costs, improve the efficiency of customer responses, provide safer traffic flow for employees and include large meeting rooms available for public use. In addition, the building will be constructed to meet City of Chicago sustainability requirements.

“We’re honored to serve the residents of Chicago through our partnership with Peoples Gas,” Roland Schneider, project executive, McKissack Paschen JV said. “We take great pride in increasing the quality of life through the investment of infrastructure and workforce development.”

More Versatility. More Paschen.

The Conrad Sulzer Regional Library was built by our Paschen family of contractors in 1985. Recently, we were privileged to renovate this historic Chicago Public Library.

This interior renovation was completed in ten phases across three floors, in order to keep the building fully operational throughout construction.

Project Engineer Sean Lewis stated, “The interior renovation was especially challenging due to the magnitude of the renovation scope and the library’s one and only requirement – keep the library 100% operational at all times.  This posed many coordination challenges, including a 10 phased project schedule for the base scope. The library was pleased throughout the project with the quality of work and the minimal impact that we had on the patrons and staff of the library.”

Work included new flooring and painting throughout the building, a new lobby circulation desk, three new conference rooms, upgraded power and data, new fixtures/accessories at all seven bathrooms, a new AV system in the auditorium, and children’s area upgrades. The entire library lighting system also was retrofit with upgraded LED fixtures.

The job was completed by F.H. Paschen’s Preferred Projects Group (PPG). For more information on our wide variety of services and delivery methods, click here.

More Versatility. More Paschen.

F.H. Paschen, along with our partners EXP and Burns & McDonnell, accepted the 2018 Infrastructure Construction Award from the Chicago Building Congress (CBC) for the Washington/Wabash Elevated Loop CTA Station.

The iconic CTA Station was designed to become the gateway for Millennium Park and the Loop. This Design/Bid/Build project features a canopy with an architectural oscillating wave pattern, and has become a point of interest for travellers commuting through the Loop.

This latest award joins the Association of Subcontractors and Affiliates (ASA) Outstanding Project of the Year, Construction Industry Service Corporation (CISCO) Project of the Year (Finalist), and Chicago Department of Transportation (IRTBA) Outstanding Transit Contractor of the Year in recognizing this groundbreaking and transformative CTA Station.

#BuildWithPaschen

For more on this project, click here.

F.H. Paschen delivered the new American Airlines L Stinger Concourse at O’Hare International Airport, the first gate capacity expansion in 25 years.

“This project is a true testament of the successful collaboration between client, designer and contractor. The progressive spirit of the team made the project successful in so many ways,” said Frank Mullaghy, Vice President of Paschen’s Aviation Group. “Key performance indicators with respect to the budget, schedule, safety and quality were achieved through the commitment and experience of our managers and workforce coupled with the mutual respect of each team member, open communication and transparency across the project.”.

Paschen also delivered on their commitment to utilizing a diverse group of subcontractors and workers. Paschen granted over 47 percent of this project’s subcontracts to minority and women owned businesses and over 48 percent of work hours were performed by skilled minority workers.

Paschen was selected along with the design team of Corgan, Jacobs, Thornton Tomasetti and HTP, who together provided a seamless integration of design and construction. Utilizing a CM@ Risk delivery method, Paschen delivered this project on time and on budget by working hand-in-hand with the Design Team, Department of Aviation and American Airlines while minimizing disruptions to active airfield operations.

To read our press release, click here.

To listen to our interview on WGN Radio, click here.

More Ingenuity. More Paschen.

The Paschen Scholars made their second visit to the 41st Street Pedestrian Bridge construction site. When the Scholars visited last, they met with our Project Manager and Project Engineer to review the plans and walk the site containing only our trailers.

Since that time, steel has been erected, a temporary bridge was built and much progress has been made. The Scholars were given a tour of the site and were prepared with many questions for our Project Manager. The questions ranged from the amount of RFI’s on the project to date to why they took the time to work on the BIM Coordination. They also discussed scheduling and how the project sequencing was decided to ensure minimal down time during the winter.

The Paschen Engineering Scholars program is more than an average internship. Three years of STEM curriculum, summer internships, exposure to college engineering programs, construction site visits, classroom-to-site applications, and one-on-one support ensure each student can seek the STEM career of his or her dreams with confidence.

We are looking forward to many more site visits with our Paschen Scholars!

Learn more about our Paschen Scholars program and our work with Westinghouse College Prep.

More Opportunity. More Paschen.

On May 1st, we joined U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski, RTA’s President Kirk Dillard, Metra CEO/Executive Director Jim Derwinski, and well over 100 Metra employees at the groundbreaking on the Rock Island Rehab Shop Expansion. The facility will serve multiple functions, including job training, rehab, and maintenance of the Rock Island Line train cars.

Additions to the facility include a newly enclosed Diesel Shop, which will allow work to continue through the inclement weather. The storage building will be fully enclosed with side panels and a new roof. This will provide additional storage for material needed to repair and upgrade cars safe from the elements.

A new cast-in-place loading dock at the Coach Shop will allow for reduced delivery times.  

A new 40,000 sf state-of-the-art training facility will allow Metra to educate and provide on-site job training. The facility also will include new classrooms, locker rooms, welding booths, overhead cranes, and a high bay area where rail cars will be brought into the building and can be used for training purposes.

Upon completion, this renovated facility will allow Metra to increase the number of cars the can be repaired per year, resulting in upgraded and well-maintained cars for passengers.

We are committed to awarding over 25% of the subcontracting work to Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) firms.

More Opportunity. More Paschen.

F.H. Paschen celebrated the completion of the first phase of the CTA 95th Street Red Line Station Improvement Project alongside joint venture partner Milhouse Engineering & Construction. A skilled, diverse workforce of over 1200 executed this work, including residents from the local community who will enjoy access to the improved station regularly.  

“We lead by example. A diverse workforce is ingrained in the history and culture of Paschen, and for each project we build a diverse workforce represents the community,” said Matt Moss, Vice President of F.H. Paschen. “Through collaboration with CTA and our design partner, EXP, we were able to maximize the station’s architectural impact and operational function, providing the best value to the CTA and their customers.”

Committed to growth and building capacity in diverse and local businesses, Paschen and Milhouse have awarded 30 percent of this project’s subcontracts to disadvantaged businesses.

The new South Terminal re-opened Sunday, April 15, with Mayor Rahm Emanuel, local aldermen, a handful of elected officials and students from the F.H. Paschen Scholars Program on-site to announce the milestone. The station is located in the center median of the Dan Ryan Expressway (I-94) at 95th Street.

To read our press release, click here.

More Opportunity. More Paschen.