A top Chicago Transit Authority official who has been responsible for overseeing the reconstruction of the Brown Line during the last three years is resigning as the rail project continues to face major pressures to contain costs, CTA officials said Sunday.
Susan Plassmeyer, CTA executive vice president of construction, engineering and facilities maintenance, is leaving the transit agency at the end of the month to become executive director of alumni and development programs at Washington University in St. Louis, CTA officials said.
Plassmeyer, 43, who joined the CTA eight years ago as general manager of real estate, said she is leaving to “grow professionally and move closer to family and friends” at home in Missouri.
The Brown Line overhaul to expand stations to accommodate longer trains, make rail platforms accessible to disabled riders and modernize tracks and signals has been riddled with problems.
They started with the CTA reneging on its promise to keep all stations open during the work. Fifteen stations are being temporarily closed to save $22 million because of escalating costs on parts of the project, and some of the temporary station closings are being extended because of construction-related issues.
In addition, contractors’ initial bids for the Brown Line work came in far above internal CTA engineering estimates, and in several cases CTA officials failed to monitor progress closely to ensure that routine requirements, including acquiring the needed construction permits from the city, were followed.
But CTA President Frank Kruesi now says the $530 million Brown Line project is back on track, due in large measure to Plassmeyer, who CTA officials said assumed her current duties after some of the original setbacks.
Plassmeyer “proved herself in a series of increasingly challenging jobs,” Kruesi said. He said her efforts to repackage Brown Line construction bids has kept the overall project on time and within budget, despite rising costs throughout the construction industry.
Plassmeyer oversaw a strategy to break the bids into eight smaller contracts to increase competition, Kruesi said. Individual bids for construction originally came in at $420.5 million to $541.2 million.
CTA officials Sunday disclosed the final large Brown Line construction award, pending approval by the board. FHP Tectonics bid $66.9 million for work on the Paulina, Southport, Wellington and Diversey stations, officials said.
With only one small contract still to be bid, for communications equipment, CTA officials now estimate total Brown Line project construction costs at $314.2 million, which is $106.3 million less than the original low bid of $420.5 million.
The goal will be to keep tight reins on spending during the rest of the project through 2009, officials said. CTA officials did not announce Plassmeyer’s replacement at the agency.
Plassmeyer has managed an annual operating budget of $144million and supervised more than 1,300 employees. She was responsible for construction of the CTA’s new headquarters at 567 W. Lake St. and the $283 million renovation of the Dan Ryan branch of the Red Line.
Although Plassmeyer said she is leaving the transit agency for personal reasons, she may find life in academia less stressful. Plassmeyer and other CTA construction officials have been under intensifying scrutiny about the Brown Line project.
Carl Lingenfelter, chief of staff to CTA board Chairwoman Carole Brown, has openly criticized and second-guessed Plassmeyer, according to CTA sources. Unlike Plassmeyer, Lingenfelter had no background in construction or transportation before Brown brought him over to the CTA as a political appointee.
Brown, who is often at odds with Kruesi, has said the CTA has a “huge credibility problem” convincing the public that the Brown Line project will be completed on schedule and within budget.
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jhilkevitch@tribune.com
