WMATA Summer 2019 BL/YL Virginia platform project

[JDC]

Per NBC Washington, "Metro will shut down six rail stations in Northern Virginia during the entirety of summer 2019 to rebuild platforms, the transit agency announced Monday. The following stations will close between Memorial Day and Labor Day 2019: Braddock Road, King Street, Eisenhower Avenue, Huntington, Van Dorn Street and Franconia-Springfield." More details in the story: https://www.nbcwashington.com/traffic/t ... 40951.html

Here is the Metro press release : https://www.wmata.com/about/news/Platfo ... uction.cfm

[JDC]

More details from WP:

"The initial round of platform repairs will target Braddock Road, King Street and Eisenhower Avenue stations, but the entire southern portion of the Blue and Yellow lines will close from Memorial Day to Labor Day 2019, not only to rebuild the platforms but to accomplish a host of large-scale projects that include the demolition of the Huntington parking garage, the overhaul of a rail bridge near the Van Dorn station, the installation of a new crossover near King Street and the repair of another crossover at Huntington, according to the board documents."

"Beyond the Blue and Yellow Line closures next summer, specific work timelines have not been established. But other stations to be targeted include Van Dorn Street in September 2019, where weeks-long single-tracking will slow service on the Blue Line, and Franconia-Springfield, where the platform is expected to be rebuilt in the fall of 2019. Metro says it does not expect the Franconia project, nor subsequent platform rebuilds at the National Airport and Huntington stations between January and May 2020, to drastically impact service."

"Metro intends to target Green and Orange Line platforms, including West Hyattsville, College Park and Greenbelt, and Vienna and Dunn Loring, in the summer of 2020, according to the board documents. The rehab of the Rhode Island Avenue station platform is slated for September of that year, followed by the West Falls Church platform that fall. In 2021, the work shifts to East Falls Church in the winter, and Cheverly, Landover and New Carrollton in the summer. The Arlington Cemetery platform would be rebuilt in September 2021, followed by Addison Road between September and December."

Finally, "other goals to be accomplished during next summer’s Blue and Yellow line closures include construction work for the new Potomac Yard station in Alexandria, the replacement of electrical equipment for three power substations, and a “repair blitz” at the Alexandria rail yard, according to board documents."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/tr ... f77aabf0a6

[JDC]

Per NBC Washington, "Metro will shut down six rail stations in Northern Virginia during the entirety of summer 2019 to rebuild platforms, the transit agency announced Monday. The following stations will close between Memorial Day and Labor Day 2019: Braddock Road, King Street, Eisenhower Avenue, Huntington, Van Dorn Street and Franconia-Springfield." More details in the story: https://www.nbcwashington.com/traffic/t ... 40951.html

Here is the Metro press release : https://www.wmata.com/about/news/Platfo ... uction.cfm

And here is Board presentation: https://www.wmata.com/about/board/meeti ... -Recon.pdf

[farecard]

They sure do not like single-tracking.....

[STrRedWolf]

Plus, with how the Blue line was shafted as the Silver was put in, I can see a bit of why they did those plans the way. It's going to be a quick pain.

I do wonder how Van Dorn Street is going to work. Franconia-Springfield and Huntington are end stations with island platforms. Van Dorn is also island platform but not an end station.

National Airport I can see how they can handle it, since it's three tracks and two islands.

[JackRussell]

They sure do not like single-tracking.....

They had sort of been doing that for a while, but it doesn't work well - the rate at which repairs can be made is a lot slower, and you would have to deal with much longer periods of single tracking. If you had two side platforms I could see how you might just replace one platform and then the other, but the outdoor stations tend to have a single center platform.

[mtuandrew]

I do wonder how Van Dorn Street is going to work. Franconia-Springfield and Huntington are end stations with island platforms. Van Dorn is also island platform but not an end station.

What do you mean? Van Dorn had single track all the way to Franconia for SafeTrack; it was a pain. Wasn’t so bad when it was just one station track.

[mtuandrew]

Bumping this because the beginning is nigh (2.5 months.)

WTOP’s info on the City of Alexandria, Fairfax County, and WMATA plan for bustitution:
https://wtop.com/tracking-metro-24-7/20 ... -shutdown/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[JDC]

Metro has its own very helpful page, too. https://www.wmata.com/service/rail/plat ... =Platforms

[JDC]

Figured it made sense to create a new thread now that Metro is about to officially kick off this massive project.

What is this project? Per Metro, [s]tarting Saturday, May 25, the six Blue and Yellow line stations south of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport will be closed for full platform reconstruction and major station improvements." Metro recently announced that the project will be extended by 6 days, lasting until Sunday Sept. 8. The reason? To perform a more intensive rehabilitation of the "Braddock hump", where the platform is 2-4 inches higher than the railcars in some spots. https://www.wmata.com/about/news/Platfo ... ension.cfm. Another reason is that Metro has decided to replace ALL of the tiles at the stations south of DCA, and not just the platform tiles (per the prior link).

Metro has created a dedicated, detailed project page for the upcoming project. http://wmata.com/platforms. It's rather good, with excellent explanations of the various bus options.

[mtuandrew]

Moderator Note: merged two threads.

[GojiMet86]

For the busfans here, DASH bought some articulated Neoplans from Westchester Bee-Line for this.

[daybeers]

Alexandria is not happy about the extension. Apparently, in true Metro fashion, nobody outside Metro was alerted the shutdown was being extended.

[mtuandrew]

Alexandria is not happy about the extension. Apparently, in true Metro fashion, nobody outside Metro was alerted the shutdown was being extended.

I’m not exactly thrilled either, my commute will likely take another half-hour beyond the hour it usually does, and I won’t feasibly be able to work evening hours without it ballooning to a two-hour commute. Pretty frosted that WMATA chose to replace the Van Dorn escalators starting early this year, with completion scheduled for early in the shutdown.

I’d rather just beg CSX and the FRA to let Metro install a single-track shoo-fly on their property, just to get around Braddock.

[STrRedWolf]

I’d rather just beg CSX and the FRA to let Metro install a single-track shoo-fly on their property, just to get around Braddock.

...which from what I can tell from GMaps and Wikimapia, requires building out immediately south of the Braddock switch, on a bridge's ROW, and then a full interlocking has to be installed south of the cut-back-in point. That'll take some time to actually build, and you know WMATA's not on the ball, and the expense for a temporary cut-over would blow the budget further.

I think it would be better to pay VRE, CSX, MARC, and Amtrak for rush-hour, rush direction shuttle train service. Take MARC cars between Franconia-Springfield to Washington Union Station with stops at Alexandria, Crystal City, and LeFant Plaza (where subway service still runs), every 20 minutes (outside existing VRE service), rush direction only. Turn them at Franconia-Springfield for deadhead run back to Union. This will take care of a good chunk of riders right there... but the kicker would be bribing^Wpaying CSX for the extra trainsets.