Gas
Challenge: Managing a program of distribution designs across the city of Chicago, navigating utility congestion, OUC Permitting, and other challenges specific to the location of each project.
Solution: Using our comprehensive knowledge of PGL Standards and preferences, OUC Permitting, and changing CDOT requirements to provide recommendations and best practices to PGL continuously.
Result: Successfully constructed hundreds of consistent quality distribution for various project types and sizes across the City of Chicago.
Since 2015, Milhouse has been responsible for designing 150+ miles of distribution gas mains for Peoples Gas as part of their Accelerated Main Replacement Program (AMRP). Milhouse has completed full-scale replacements of 7 neighborhoods across Chicago.
AMRP replacements involve replacing aging low-pressure 6–36” cast iron, ductile iron, and steel gas main with 2–18” medium-pressure plastic gas or steel main. Neighborhood AMRP designs are broken into 5–40+ phases, consisting of 10–65+ miles of installation and thousands of service replacements.
Design aspects include directional bore and open cut installation, pipe insertion, phase coordination, utility coordination with the City of Chicago Office of Underground Coordination (OUC), railroad crossings including deep shore review permitting and earth retention design, retirement plans, restoration plans, and site-specific MOT design for arterial roadways.
Milhouse has also been responsible for designing 200+ projects of gas distribution main for Peoples Gas as part of their Non-Program Improvement Projects. These projects are driven by new business additions, LP-MP vault replacements, other Chicago utility relocations, and any other individual projects not captured in their AMRP program.
Highlights of the program include multiple complex designs in downtown Chicago and O’Hare airport, including design constraints such as extreme utility congestion, complex site-specific maintenance of traffic design, and challenges unique to the City of Chicago, such as vaulted sidewalks and upper/lower streets. The non-program projects’ design includes the same overall scope as the AMRP design (installation, retirement, restoration, and MOT plans). Designs are produced using the latest versions of Microstation.
