Ceremony in Chicago on Heels of Historic Red Line Extension Contract Award
CHICAGO – Signing the Equity in Infrastructure Pledge were:
- Leanne Redden, Executive Director, Regional Transportation Authority
- Jim Derwinski, Chief Executive Officer/Executive Director, Metra
- Cassaundra Rouse, Executive Director, Illinois Tollway
- Peter Davoren, President & Chief Executive Officer, Turner Construction Company
- James Reynolds, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Loop Capital
- Joseph Sczurko, U.S. Region President, WSP
- Mark Fialkowski, President, Infrastructure North America, Parsons Corporation
- Christopher Martel, Senior Vice President & North Area Leader for Transportation Services, CDM Smith
- Daniel Drew, Vice President, Central Area & Sector Manager, TYLin
EIP’s mission is to build generational wealth and reduce the racial wealth gap by improving public infrastructure contracting practices to create more prime, joint venture and equity contracting opportunities for Historically Underutilized Businesses (HUBs). Providing these opportunities also creates more competition, reducing costs to public agencies and allowing them to drive more value from their infrastructure dollars. EIP’s 68 signers are heads of transit authorities, airports, ports, water districts, and engineering, financial and construction firms from across the country – representing hundreds of billions of dollars of power to improve people’s lives. The White House has directly called upon Bipartisan Infrastructure Law grantees to sign the Pledge.
See EquityInInfrastructure.org
The signing ceremony on Friday, August 16 was hosted by Chicago Transit Authority President Dorval Carter, Jr., Co-Chair of EIP, accompanied by EIP Co-Chairs Phil Washington (CEO of Denver International Airport), John Porcari (former US Deputy Secretary of Transportation) and Rick Jacobs. The ceremony came on the heels of the CTA’s award of the construction contract for the Red Line Extension (RLE) project, a transformative, multi-billion dollar capital investment in Chicago’s Far South Side. CTA was one of the founding first five signers of the EIP Pledge.
“The RLE project is the single most important project that I will oversee as president of the CTA. I have always said that public transit is a lot more than about getting people from point A to point B. CTA helps to drive the city's economic engine and helps people live their lives. This type of multi-billion dollar commitment to improve public transit access underscores my long-held belief that public transit agencies must keep equity at the forefront of mind in policy and planning matters,” Carter said. “The EIP Pledge states that signatory agencies and organizations will work to increase the number, size, and percentage of historically underutilized businesses grown to prime contractors, participating in joint ventures, or as equity participants. This project is vitally important and is a way for public transportation agencies, as well as other public agencies across the country, to help grow the community of contractors in a way that is fair and invests in the future of our industry.”
“The Equity and Infrastructure Project is a big deal,” said the Rev. James Meeks, the founder and pastor emeritus of Salem Baptist Church of Chicago. The South Side church hosted the signing ceremony. “We have minority contractors who need to be a part of this game. It's enough for everybody. It's a big pie. My daily prayer is that we make room.”
“We are breaking new ground today and really, this is an epic and historic day, and one that I think will go down in the history of Chicago as one of those key moments, particularly around economic development,” said David Doig, President, Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives.
“EIP is not some social program. It is an economic development program – we are increasing the level of competition by having minority, women-owned, veteran-owned firms bid on not just subcontracts, but prime contracts. EIP is about delivering a return on our historic infrastructure investments in ways that are felt across the country,” Washington said. “EIP’s power is really unlocked because it's CEO-level.”
“Public transportation is personal. It means so much. It is not just about building a rail line. It is about people and access,” continued Washington, who grew up on Chicago’s South Side in public housing, at Altgeld Gardens Homes. “My oldest sister that's here now – the first college graduate in our family – had to get up at 4 a.m. in the morning, every morning, to get to Northeastern University on the other side of town, two and a half hours one way because of the lack of transportation. She did it for four years, culminating in her being selected as the first exchange student to Israel. So this is a big thing – it's a big thing – the Red Line Extension. We appreciate Dorval Carter, the man who had the wherewithal and the experience to get this done.”
“I'm really excited about signing this pledge. I think that it's an important thing for CEOs to step up and acknowledge and then drive ourselves further into these issues and deliver on some of these promises,” said Leanne Redden, Executive Director, Regional Transportation Authority. “There are so many opportunities where together we can increase our efforts from outreach to local contractors, certification, business opportunities, really in making sure that we are evaluating ourselves and measuring our own progress to make sure that we really are improving our own accountability.”
“We can't have the same old, same old. The more people at the table, the better the product's always going to be,” said Jim Derwinski, Chief Executive Officer/Executive Director, Metra.
“When I think about the Equity In Infrastructure Project, I think about access. I think about removing barriers. Our board is committed to making sure that there's equity delivered throughout our [$15 billion] capital program,” said Cassaundra Rouse, Executive Director, Illinois Tollway.
“It's very important to understand that in order to do anything right, you have to have a purpose. In order to have a purpose, you have to have a message. And we truly believe that our message is that in anything that we do, we must create an environment where people can be at their best, be authentic, and be treated with respect and dignity,” said Peter Davoren, President & Chief Executive Officer, Turner Construction Company. “The Equity In Infrastructure Project has the same model. It has the same purpose.”
“I was also one of the orchestrators behind minority firms being primed at the Obama Center, when they told me that there would be no self-respecting, majority-owned construction company that would work behind black primes. I told them I didn't think that was factual or true, and indeed, Turner stepped up,” said James Reynolds, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Loop Capital, referring to the successful Lakeside Alliance bid to build the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.
“Not only does EIP stand for community, opportunity, and future, what it does is live that, embody that, provide us opportunities to be a key organization and be a leader in providing opportunities and a bright future in communities, most especially for historically underutilized businesses,” said Joseph Sczurko, U.S. Region President, WSP.
“I'm honored to affirm Parsons' commitment to the Equity In Infrastructure Project. The goals of the project align directly with the goals of the Parsons Corporation,” said Mark Fialkowski, President, Infrastructure North America, Parsons Corporation. “Our commitment is more than just signing the Pledge. It's also financial. The IIJA provides funding like I've never seen in my 40 year history with the industry. This is a great time to make sure we increase the size, the number and the proportion – the whole infrastructure pie – that goes to HUB businesses.”
“Our firm's philosophy is creating teams that reflect the areas we work in and live while promoting equitable results for our clients and communities,” said Christopher Martel, Senior Vice President & North Area Leader for Transportation Services, CDM Smith. “It's not just talk. Our actions demonstrate our commitment by fostering inclusive and inspiring cultures that attract the brightest and best in the industry and deliver the best for our clients. I can't say enough how excited we are about signing the Pledge.”
“The mission of the Equity and Infrastructure Project is actually in complete alignment with the guiding principles of our TYLin Build Program,” said Daniel Drew, Vice President, Central Area & Sector Manager, TYLin. “It bridges the gaps, unifies, includes everyone, levels the playing field and diversifies. And we are not just committed to these principles in words, we are committed to them in practice and action. It would be significantly more challenging implementing these initiatives if it were not for the leadership of our public agencies and the transformative infrastructure projects that we've had an opportunity to be a part of. You know, these projects and programs are the vehicles that create the opportunities for our disadvantaged minority and women business partners.”
EIP Advisory Council members in attendance were:
- Diana Mendes, HNTB’s Corporate President, Infrastructure and Mobility Equity at HNTB (Chair)
- Phillip Owens, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility, representing Anser Advisory, which is part of Accenture
- Ann McNeill, Chair & Founder of the National Association of Black Women in Construction
- Terry Ruhl, Board Chair and CEO of HW Lochner
- Everett Sands, CEO of Lendistry
- Eve Williams, President of Dikita Enterprises
Representatives of the following previous EIP Pledge signatories were in attendance:
- Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT)
- Pace Suburban Bus
- Infrastructure Engineering, Inc.
- The Conference of Minority Transportation Officials (COMTO)
- United Brotherhood of Carpenters
Additional Background:
The Red Line Extension (RLE) is a transformative capital investment in Chicago’s Far South Side that will extend the Red Line by 5.6 miles, add four new, accessible rail stations, and provide vital connections to jobs, schools, medical resources, transit and other communities throughout Chicago. The award of the design-build contract to Walsh-VINCI Transit Community Partners is an extraordinary and long-awaited milestone and a tremendous step forward towards ensuring better transit access for the communities in the project footprint.
The Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) is the unit of local government created to oversee finances, secure funding, and to conduct transit planning for the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), Metra, and Pace. The RTA also issues Reduced Fare and Ride Free permits, assesses eligibility for ADA Paratransit service, and oversees specialized travel training for people with disabilities and older adults. We service the Northeast Illinois counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will.
Metra is the commuter rail system serving Chicago and surrounding suburbs. It is the fourth-largest commuter rail system in the United States in terms of ridership, and is the largest outside of the New York metro area. Its 2023 ridership was nearly 32 million.
The Illinois Tollway is a user-fee system that receives no state or federal funds for maintenance and operations. The agency maintains and operates 294 miles of roadways in 12 counties in Northern Illinois, including the Reagan Memorial Tollway (I-88), the Veterans Memorial Tollway (I-355), the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway (I-90), the Tri-State Tollway (I-94/I-294/I-80) and the Illinois Route 390 Tollway.
Turner Construction opened its Chicago office in 1924 – 100 years ago. It is a North America-based, international construction services company that completes $15 billion of construction on 1,500 projects each year. In 2015, four Black-owned construction firms — Brown & Momen, Powers & Sons Construction, Safeway Construction and UJAMAA Construction — came together to select Turner Construction as the prime contractor for their successful Obama Presidential Center bid. This joint venture was named Lakeside Alliance.
Loop Capital grew from a Chicago municipal bond firm with a staff of six in 1997 to a global investment services firm with over 260 professionals. It is a full-service investment bank, brokerage and advisory firm that provides creative capital solutions for corporate, governmental and institutional entities across the globe. It offers a wide range of public finance investment banking and underwriting services to state and local governments, transportation entities including airports, toll roads, and mass transit agencies, water and sewer agencies, housing authorities, higher education institutions, and healthcare providers among other sectors.
WSP is one of the largest professional services firms in the world. It provides strategic advisory, engineering, and design services to clients seeking sustainable solutions in the transportation, infrastructure, environment, building, energy, water, and mining sectors.
Parsons is a global leader in engineering, construction, and technology services, specializing in infrastructure, defense, cybersecurity, and smart cities. Founded in 1944, Parsons has approximately 19,000 employees across six continents, serving thousands of clients worldwide.
CDM Smith is a global privately owned engineering and construction firm providing legendary client service and smart solutions in water, environment, transportation, energy and facilities. Over 75 years of service, CDM Smith has delivered more than 150,000 projects to 20,000-plus clients in over 150 countries.
TYLin designs infrastructure solutions that connect and elevate communities, enhancing conventional designs with smarter, more resilient systems and connecting gridlocked populations with better means of mobility. Its projects continue to be recognized with prestigious awards from respected organizations around the world. Each accolade is the result of a deep understanding of its clients’ expectations and collaborating with the right partners and professionals to exceed them.
