Visitors to the newly rebuilt O'Hare Oasis, situated over the Tri-State Tollway northwest of Chicago, are amazed at how a bleak, 45-year-old structure has been completely revamped into a beautiful, state-of-the-art destination with greatly expanded customer services and much enhanced convenience and appeal for local commuters and travelers.

"We have received nothing but positive comments from people who have driven by and stopped and looked at the new oasis," says John O'Malley, director of construction for real estate developer Wilton Partners. "The traveling public just loves the facility because it is bright and airy, clean and offers a variety of choices."

The O'Hare Oasis was redeveloped in Phase 1 of a spectacular multi-year, redesign project called the Oases Redevelopment Program. Under the program — launched in 2003 and scheduled for completion in summer 2005, the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority's seven aging oases (motor service plazas) are being transformed into brand new facilities, featuring new and improved tenants and a wide variety of travel amenities.

In an unprecedented public/private partnership, the Illinois Tollway, Wilton Partners and ExxonMobil are comprehensively rebuilding and privately developing the oases. The $100-million-plus capital commitment allows for complete reconstruction of the oases at no cost to the Illinois Tollway or its customers.

"The Oases Redevelopment Program is a major component in the Illinois Tollway's efforts to better serve its customers and to find creative funding solutions to improve our system," states Executive Director Jack Hartman.

The Illinois Tollway selected and signed an agreement with Wilton Partners for the project based on their strong track record of successfully redeveloping retail venues across the nation. Wilton Partners, based in Los Angeles with a regional office in Chicago, is investing $94 million ($70 million in construction costs) under its agreement with the Illinois Tollway to rebuild the oases. Six of the seven oases are being completely redesigned, with one being extensively remodeled and expanded.

James McHugh Construction Co., Chicago, serving as general contractor for Wilton Partners, is performing the oases work. "We are building the shells for the buildings and are making all public improvements," says McHugh Senior Project Manager Joe Bodzioch, P.E. "We are running about a nine-month schedule for the shell and about 1-1/2 months to 2 months for the tenant build-out."

Meanwhile, ExxonMobil — under its agreement with the Illinois Tollway, is responsible for rebuilding Mobil fuel stations for the redesigned oases, featuring new On The Run convenience stores.

The Illinois Tollway's unique agreements with Wilton Partners and ExxonMobil include provisions for the private partners to pay for all maintenance and real estate taxes for the next 25 years. The Illinois Tollway will share in the food and gas sales revenues, and funds will be set aside for future repair needs.

The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority maintains and operates 274 miles of interstate tollways in 12 counties in northern Illinois, including the East-West Tollway (I-88), the North-South Tollway (I-355), the Northwest Tollway (I-90), and the Tri-State Tollway (I-94, I-294 and I-80/I-294). Four of the seven oases in the system are located on the Tri-State Tollway.

The oases include the O'Hare Oasis, Tri-State Tollway, near Mile Post 38 in Schiller Park; Belvidere Oasis, Northwest Tollway, near Mile Post 55, in Belvidere; Des Plaines Oasis, Northwest Tollway, near Mile Post 1, in Des Plaines; Hinsdale Oasis, Tri-State Tollway, near Mile Post 26, in Hinsdale; Lake Forest Oasis, Tri-State Tollway, near Mile Post 58, in Lake Forest; Lincoln Oasis, Tri-State Tollway, near Mile Post 1, in South Holland; and DeKalb Oasis, East-West Tollway, near Mile Post 93 in DeKalb.

Six of the seven oases are built atop bridges spanning the Illinois Tollway's roadways (the DeKalb Oasis is a roadside structure). Five of the structures were built in 1959, with the Lincoln Oasis built in 1968 and the DeKalb Oasis in 1975. These over-the-road oases, constructed with cast-in-place concrete, are being "stripped" or demolished to their existing bridge decks. McHugh is making minor concrete repairs to the bridge decks, and then rebuilding entirely new structures.

In addition to McHugh, key participants in the Oases Redevelopment Program include Cordogan, Clark & Associates Inc., Chicago and Aurora, Ill. — architect/engineer; V3 Consultants, Woodridge, Ill. — civil engineer; and Daniel Weinbach & Partners, Ltd., Chicago — landscape architecture. Knight Infrastructure Architects & Engineers, Chicago, is serving as the Illinois Tollway's consultant.

The redevelopment program is broken down into four phases, with completion scheduled for summer 2005. Phase 1, reconstruction of the O'Hare and Belvidere oases, began in July 2003 and was completed in May 2004. Both facilities reopened in late June. Phase 2, reconstruction of the Hinsdale and Lake Forest oases, is currently under way — work began in April 2004 and is slated for completion in December, with reopening in February 2005.

In Phase 3, Des Plaines and DeKalb oases construction will begin in late summer and extend to spring 2005. The final phase, Lincoln Oasis, is scheduled to begin this fall, with completion in summer 2005.

Redevelopment of the Lincoln Oasis will be intriguing, according to Bodzioch. "The structural design is completely different from any of the other oases — it is composed of all structural steel as opposed to concrete," he says. "Lincoln is unique because it has a full clear span of 140 feet across the entire roadway without a center pier. We are planning on reusing the steel, jacking the steel up 15 feet to 16 feet to create the new roof line and inserting new column splices into that bridge.

"It is a massive job," he adds. "Some of the beams at Lincoln are huge. By reusing the steel, we are hoping to save cost and cut time on the project."

Once the entire Oases Redevelopment Project is completed, the new facilities will be unrecognizable from today's outdated structures. Developer Wilton Partners Tollway LLC brought a unique perspective on how to best transform the oases into desirable places to visit. Wilton's work on the project is marked by ambitious structural design and a plethora of food and retail choices.

As designed by Cordogan, Clark & Associates Inc., the new over-the-road facilities (the six structures are virtually identical) measure more than 300 feet in length and 170 feet in width. The over-the-road spans are approximately 135 feet long and 72 feet wide.

Inside, each facility has 40,294 square feet on the main level, with an additional 10,425 square feet on the lower level. The structures are brighter, loftier — twice as tall as their predecessors — and more open. According to Tim Wilkin, an associate with Cordogan, Clark & Associates, the designs take full advantage of the over-the-road configuration by expanding the interior space and heightening the ceilings and expansive walls of windows facing the roadway from each side.

Wilkin says the layout of the space in each oasis is more organized than before — accommodating multiple tenants in a more organized fashion.

A new structural steel truss frame spans the roadway, replacing the original cast-in-place concrete beams and concrete deck roof structure. The arched system is visible from the roadway and is incorporated into the building's open glass design. In all, nearly 5 million pounds of structural steel are being placed for six over-the-road buildings.

The new oases, featuring state-of-the-art MEP systems, are essentially glassed in sky bridges, with glass curtain wall (1-inch-thick insulating, transparent glass with a special coating to increase energy efficiency) spanning the terrazzo floors to the 30-foot-high ceilings. According to McHugh, construction of each oasis requires approximately 800,000 pounds of structural steel, 17,000 square feet of glass curtain wall and 35,000 square feet of terrazzo tile flooring.

To expand the existing facilities by about 25,000 square feet, McHugh is expanding the landside foundations on each side, with foundations featuring 15-foot-tall, cast-in-place retaining walls.

Before the Oases Redevelopment Project began, most of the oases only offered one fast-food restaurant, bathroom facilities and gas.

So, planning for the project began with in-depth research to determine what features and amenities were important to drivers. Focus groups, motorist surveys and meetings with community officials helped determine the scope of the redevelopment project. In response to customer input, the new oases feature inviting, interactive public spaces for customers. They also feature more than four times as many restroom stalls, including men's and women's restrooms on both sides of the building with automatic flushing toilets and automatic sinks. The restroom partitions are stainless steel, and each restroom features a skylight over the sink area to provide natural light. There are also two family restrooms in each oasis with private toilet and changing tables.

Outside of the facilities, the oases will also have increased exterior lighting in the parking lots and extensive landscaping — including native shrubbery and drought-resistant plants, such as prairie grasses and flowering perennials. A dog walk kennel has also been added on both sides of each oasis to provide an exercise and bathroom area for families traveling with their pets.

These oases are destined to become daily stops for millions of tollway customers. Wilton Partners and the Illinois Tollway developed the new oases to include diverse services that will attract those on their daily commute as well as long-distance travelers. With up to 20,000 square feet of leasable space, the new oases have a strong retail base that features a variety of tenants offering a wide selection of food, beverages and retail options.

Current tenants at each of the new oases include Krispy Kreme Doughnuts; a full-service McDonald's with drive-thru and McTreats Kiosk; Panda Express; Starbucks Coffee; Stonebridge Gyros & Café; Subway; Tropicana Smoothies; Juices and More!; Fifth Third Bank ATMs; and Travel Mart convenience store.

Additional future offerings expected at each oasis include a business media center offering wireless Internet access, music store, DVD movie rentals, massage chairs, arcade, lottery, tobacco store, dry cleaners, and flower and gift stores.

For McHugh Construction Co., construction of the six over-the-road oases poses many challenges. "Even though the sites are prototypical, each site has its own design and construction challenges," Bodzioch notes. With some sites, utilities are an issue and with other sites location (close to residential neighborhoods) is an issue.

Demolishing 40-year-old-plus oases has been a major challenge in the first two phases. McHugh had to demolish concrete buildings that included 2 million pounds of heavily reinforced concrete, while working off — and not damaging — the overhead bridges. And they had to perform this work with thousands and thousands of vehicles traveling under these construction projects.

To meet this challenge, the project team spent a lot of time analyzing original construction drawings; engineering the methods, procedures and equipment necessary to safely demolish the buildings; verifying that existing structural elements weren't overloaded; and planning for temporary heating systems to protect water main pipes, among other things.

"The demolition phase for each oasis has been averaging between six to eight weeks," Bodzioch says.

Getting materials into the project sites for the first two phases also has been a challenge. "Toll booths only allow traffic that is 10 feet wide, so trucks delivering materials won't fit through a toll booth," Bodzioch points out. "The oases' structural steel trusses are 14 feet wide, while the curtain wall panels are 30 feet long by 12 feet wide. So, we had to design alternate routes and build some temporary roadways in some cases to allow the trucks access to the site."

"We've also had situations where the Illinois Tollway weight guidelines restricted access to the site," he adds. "This created placement challenges for the 450-ton crane used for demolition and steel erection in the first phase."

McHugh Vice President Bob Mortimer notes that McHugh has enjoyed an outstanding amount of cooperation and a strong working relationship with the toll authority, making a tough job easier.

Managing 24-hour operations on several different sites and overseeing the work of 40 people on average per site (with a peak of 100 per site) has demanded a tremendous amount of coordination and supervision, according to Bodzioch. Extra planning is merited when two sites are running on parallel schedules, such as coordinating the delivery of more than 70,000 square feet of terrazzo tiles at the same time to two sites.

With several locations spread over 200 miles, organization and communication between project personnel is critical. "Strong supervision and quality subcontractors and tradespeople have helped a great deal," Bodzioch says. "We are managing each site independently. We have competent staff on each job site and have good superintendents."

Each site is being subcontracted separately to incorporate various trade union locals and local firms whenever possible, but some subcontractors work on multiple sites.

It is estimated that nearly 200,000 vehicles travel the Illinois Tollway system each day. As a result, McHugh has incorporated a number of systems to protect both motorists and workers and minimize traffic impact. Extensive netting systems are erected around the oases to protect vehicles from debris. Lane closures take place at night, resulting in 24-hour construction operations during significant parts of the project.

"Safety is an important part of the project and there are a lot of steps that have to go in place to be able to take each oasis apart and rebuild it," Bodzioch says. "Almost every operation has some night aspect from demolition to structural steel installation."

For example, during Construction Digest's recent visit to the Hinsdale Oasis, ironworkers for Area Erectors Inc., Wheeling, Ill., were setting structural steel at night for the new oasis' arched frame. Area Erectors utilized a 150-ton Liebherr crane from Stevenson Crane Service, Bolingbrook, Ill., to hoist the main trusses supplied by Midwest Steel Sales Inc., Bensenville, Ill., into place.

During this nighttime operation — between midnight and 5 a.m. — one lane of traffic was open to traffic, and there were a number of 15-minute, full closures (facilitated by the Illinois State Police) while the main trusses for half of the arch were set. Then, the following night the same procedure was repeated to complete erection of the arch.

The public/private venture of the oases program is completely new for the state of Illinois, and perhaps the nation. A number of other states have contacted the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority about using the oases program as a model to redevelop public facilities.

It is a great model to follow, according to members of the Oases Redevelopment Project team. "This public/private project is so unique," Bodzioch says. "There are design-build projects out there, but this project is essentially a design-build, finance/operate, maintenance, and then turnover contract."