O'Hare Field

THE CHALLENGE

In October, 2006 during the construction of the O’Hare Field expansion a contractor hit and severed an entire duct package near a runway. This was a critical duct package and caused crippling outages at O’Hare. Our customer called us in on an emergency basis to fix the damage. We mobilized immediately and worked around the clock to expose the duct work and make the repair.

Our company is an approved O’Hare Field contractor so we were able to mobilize quickly. For 2 weeks we worked in shifts 24 hours a day to expose and repair the duct package. We also were able to develop and implement a plan to support the repaired duct package while the other contractors brought the new infrastructure through our excavation. After work was completed we ‘concrete-encased’ the entire package and backfilled. All of this work was completed ‘round the clock during a 2 week period with no safety or related airport incidents. This work was difficult because it was in the proximity of live runways and other construction activity. All of our employees were trained in the safety procedures at O’Hare Field so we were able to mobilize immediately and finish the work in a timely manner.