CHICAGO - The Chicago Infrastructure Trust hopes to launch a competitive selection process this fall for private partners in its third energy retrofit project - city outdoor lighting upgrades.
The so-called Retrofit 3.0 project calls for the replacement of up to 400,000 outdoor lights with high efficiency LEDs. The trust hopes to enter into a private financing that would leverage energy and operational savings to repay a private partner.
The trust intends to pursue a Lighting-as-a-Service Agreement reducing overall city costs. "All outdoor lighting - street, walkway, and traffic - will be looked at comprehensively," according to trust documents presented at a recent board meeting. "CIT will negotiate with LED and network control firms to provide all of the upfront capital and manage the installation process."
The trust is aiming to ask its board to approve a request for proposals in October with the goal of picking a financier/vendor in December.
The board at a recent meeting also received an update of other pending projects including its participation with the Chicago Transit Authority in its efforts to upgrade to a 4G cellular network in the underground tunnels on two of its rail transit lines.
The trust also is aiming later this summer to finalize a deal to upgrade up to 141 swimming pools owned either by the park district or school system and bring the deal to the City Council for a final vote in the fall. A financing size has not been announced.
The trust is also advancing plans that could lead to the construction of public access compressed natural gas fueling centers. It began collaborating with the city's Fleet and Facility Management to develop a natural gas vehicle acquisition plan for the city's fleet.
The trust's role would be to "coordinate between public and private stakeholders to facilitate the construction of the largest urban public access CNG fueling infrastructure in the country," read trust documents.
The trust will work to identify a potential network of parcels for CNG fueling stations, provide a single, streamlined process to address land acquisition, zoning, permitting, landscaping and signage for CNG station developers, and collaborate with the city to develop new alternative fuel vehicle acquisition and management plan.
The goal is to reduce city and public fuel costs, reduce greenhouse emissions, and help the city achieve alternative fuel fleet goals.
The trust expects to receive unsolicited proposals from CNG fueling providers next month and then will launch an open bidding process with the goal of picking a preferred provider in September and then returning to the board later in the fall to approve the fuel provider and other private participants.
The trust is working with the CTA to develop a "cost-effective financing" for the CTA's $27 million plan to install a Next Generation Distributed Antennae System "NG-DAS" to provide 4G wireless service in its Red Line and Blue Line subway stations and tunnels.
"The CTA currently projects to fund the entirety of the project through its annual capital program, but cannot afford it," read trust documents. "The trust is identifying private financing models that will prove more cost-effective for the CTA versus paying directly out of their capital improvement budget."
The trust said it is working with wireless providers as part of a 4G licensing contract with the CTA and hopes to strike an agreement with carriers and complete negotiations on a capital funding plan in October.
The CTA awarded a contract to design and install a system to Aldridge Electric, Inc. at its July 16 board meeting. The agency expects that the 4G wireless project work will begin as soon as November 2014. The current 2G system was installed in 2005.
"A new, state-of-the-art 4G wireless communications network is part of my commitment to modernize our transportation system, which will boost ridership, bolster our long-term regional economic growth and lead to a more enjoyable ride for commuters throughout our neighborhoods," Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a CTA statement.
Work is expected to begin by the end of the year and be completed by the end of 2015. The CTA owns and licenses its subway cellular network to six major wireless service providers, which generates $1.8 million of annual revenue.
