Silver Line Dulles WMATA Metrorail progress/pictures

[Sand Box John]

"JDC"
What do you mean John by "roller coaster ride"? Does the track curve a lot back and forth? Or are there elevation changes?

Two significant elevation changes over a distance of roughly a half mile in the area of the west yard lead junction. 35' drop, 20' climb followed by a 25' drop. The design in the preliminary engineering had most of the elevation change in west yard lead track YL2 as it flew over both mainline tracks and descended to the junction that was to be located in the 25' drop.

[RobertMCS]

Sand Box John, may I ask what happened to your update blog? Also it appears that contact rail is being installed between the mainline crossover at the Dulles Greenway and 606 along the eastbound side.

[Sand Box John]

"RobertMCS"
Sand Box John, may I ask what happened to your update blog?

I took it down for personal reasons and because Google kept making it more time consuming to markup the html code. Everything is archived on optical media and on a couple rack serves.

Also it appears that contact rail is being installed between the mainline crossover at the Dulles Greenway and 606 along the eastbound side.

When I was out there a couple of months ago there was evidence they were progressing west from the yard lead junction towards the Loudoun Gateway station.

[Sand Box John]

Request For Proposals
CQ19017
Silver Line Operations & Maintenance Services

RFP can be found at View Solicitations and Place Bids under WMATA-0000006480 CQ19017 Silver Line Operations & Maintenance.

Here is a summery of what's being proposed:

Contractor will be responsible hiring and staffing all of the crafts and trades necessary to maintain and operated all of the facilities on the N route segment of the Silver line (K&N junction to end of tracks west of Ashburn station, Dulles Yard and Yard leads.

Contractor will be responsible maintaining 102 6k and 128 7k cars to provide service along the full length of the Silver line (Ashburn to Largo Town Center) at Dulles Yard.

Contractor will be responsible hiring and staffing of supervisor and train operator positions necessary for operation of the full length of the Silver line.

[JDC]

Request For Proposals
CQ19017
Silver Line Operations & Maintenance Services

RFP can be found at View Solicitations and Place Bids under WMATA-0000006480 CQ19017 Silver Line Operations & Maintenance.

Here is a summery of what's being proposed:

Contractor will be responsible hiring and staffing all of the crafts and trades necessary to maintain and operated all of the facilities on the N route segment of the Silver line (K&N junction to end of tracks west of Ashburn station, Dulles Yard and Yard leads.

Contractor will be responsible maintaining 102 6k and 128 7k cars to provide service along the full length of the Silver line (Ashburn to Largo Town Center) at Dulles Yard.

Contractor will be responsible hiring and staffing of supervisor and train operator positions necessary for operation of the full length of the Silver line.

This is going to be a very interesting experiment. It's one thing, in my opinion, to contract out cleaning services or maybe even basic station maintenance (lighting, escalators, etc) - but it's entirely something else to have train operators and supervisors employed by a different entity AND then have them inter-operating with your own employees across the line. Has this been done on any other system?

[Sand Box John]

"JDC"
This is going to be a very interesting experiment. It's one thing, in my opinion, to contract out cleaning services or maybe even basic station maintenance (lighting, escalators, etc) - but it's entirely something else to have train operators and supervisors employed by a different entity AND then have them inter-operating with your own employees across the line. Has this been done on any other system?

To my knowledge, in this type of enterprise, no.

I have also learned that the contractor has the option of not taking on the responsibility of operating trains and choosing to maintain and manage N route segment only as explained above.

[Backshophoss]

Figure on a strike by the train operators,if the contractor does go for the operations contract.
This could be interpreted as a union busting move.

[alewifebp]

The Hudson Bergen Light Rail was done in that manner as a design, build, operate, and maintain (DBOM) operation. Of course, that was a new build, not a conversion of an existing operation.

[drwho9437]

Figure on a strike by the train operators,if the contractor does go for the operations contract.
This could be interpreted as a union busting move.

Well since they don't have the right to strike... You can bet that's going to not work very well. The union isn't giving WMATA a lot of choices if their wages/benefits were market competitive then there would be no incentive for such a move (assuming work quality was equal, some might say contractors will be even worse than the Union at the work but given the state of the system I doubt the public will buy that).

[JackRussell]

There was a DCAC meeting this week. Meeting handout here with pictures and status here:

http://www.dullestollroad.com/sites/def ... _final.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The claim is that they are now 86% complete.

Upcoming:

• Electricians continue to install train control equipment and pull cable on the aerial guideway and east at grade guideway following track installation.
• East Stations – Continue ceiling, electrical and plumbing installation, escalator and elevator installation. Herndon Garage Stair Tower installation is ongoing.
• West Stations – Loudoun Gateway and Ashburn elevator and escalator installation are underway.
• Track – All rail on the east has been installed up to the Phase 1 alignment and has been turned over to the electricians for systems installation.
• Track – At grade track has been installed west from the aerial guideway on the Greenway median through Loudoun Gateway Station and toward the Ashburn Station.

There is a separate section of the handout with the status of Package B - construction of the Dulles yard. Lots of photos of the SIB - service building.

There is discussion of the precast issue that afflicts many of the new stations. The plan is to apply a silane solution every 10 years.

I saw discussion somewhere that they are talking about reopening the tunnel to garage 1 at the airport, but they were not yet ready to commit to a date.

[Sand Box John]

@ "JackRussell"
A WTOP follow up report on the precast made back in September mentioned the garage 1 pedestrian tunnel reopening sometime in October. Do you know any about that?

[JackRussell]

@ "JackRussell"
A WTOP follow up report on the precast made back in September mentioned the garage 1 pedestrian tunnel reopening sometime in October. Do you know any about that?

No, nothing. I haven't seen an announcement - I would expect the various transportation reporters to say something once this happens.

[JackRussell]

@ "JackRussell"
A WTOP follow up report on the precast made back in September mentioned the garage 1 pedestrian tunnel reopening sometime in October. Do you know any about that?

I just saw a tweet from Adam Tuss that the tunnel is now open again. He didn't post any pictures as of yet.

[Sand Box John]

"JackRussell"
I just saw a tweet from Adam Tuss that the tunnel is now open again. He didn't post any pictures as of yet.

I asked this question in September in the Silver line thread over at flyertalk.com. After seeing your post I check that thread and saw that someone said on 11 05 2018 that it would open on 11 13 2018.

What puzzles me is nobody is making a big deal about it.

[dgvrengineer]

I just flew into Dulles Sunday (11/18) and there were signs posted in the airport and on shuttle busses announcing the re-opening of the tunnel. Not sure when that happened, but it is open now.