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  • Silver Line Dulles WMATA Metrorail progress/pictures

  • Discussion related to DC area passenger rail services from Northern Virginia to Baltimore, MD. Includes Light Rail and Baltimore Subway.
Discussion related to DC area passenger rail services from Northern Virginia to Baltimore, MD. Includes Light Rail and Baltimore Subway.

Moderators: mtuandrew, therock, Robert Paniagua

 #788546  by strench707
 
Does the fact that the rest of the WMATA system having wooden sleepers make it harder for them to secure funding for concrete sleepers? People may take the opinion that if wood ones can do it fine then there's no need to spend more money on it. Obviously it would have many advantages but I'm just wondering.

Davis
 #788608  by Sand Box John
 
"strench707"
Does the fact that the rest of the WMATA system having wooden sleepers make it harder for them to secure funding for concrete sleepers? People may take the opinion that if wood ones can do it fine then there's no need to spend more money on it. Obviously it would have many advantages but I'm just wondering.


I Don't know, all I can do is speculate as to why WMATA has not or would not use them.

Earlier in the system history rail was secured to ties with spikes and tie plates. Today they are using Pandrol e-clip with the tie plates secured to the ties with box head cap screws.
 #789113  by Sand Box John
 
"SchuminWeb"
Catoe indicated in his final Lunchtalk chat that the Dulles extension would have cement cross-ties.


Miss that.

"strench707"
That's great to hear! Does anyone know how much that might increase the speed limit from what it would be with wooden sleepers?


Based on the data I have seen in the curve table in Volume IV, Chapter 3, Plan and Profile (54.4 MB PDF file) of Final Environmental Impact Statement there will be no difference in maximum speeds.

Maximum speeds will be 75 MPH like it is on many other parts of the railroad before those speeds were reduced to save energy costs (electricity) and to reduce wear and tear on the trains and track.

50 MPH inbound track N1 under Haycock Road
50 MPH I-66 flyover
60 MPH VA-267 near Idylwood Road
50 MPH VA-267 south of Chain Bridge Road
45 MPH VA-267 VA-123 interchange flyover
45 MPH Tunnel between Tysons 123 (Tyson Center) and Tysons 7 (Pike Seven Plaza)
40 MPH VA-267 VA-7 interchange flyover
70 MPH VA-267 west of VA-7 interchange
70 MPH VA-267 west of Trap Road
70 MPH VA-267 east of VA-28
45 MPH just in side tunnel portal east of Dulles Airport
40 MPH in tunnels east of Dulles Airport station
40 MPH in tunnels west of Dulles Airport station
70 MPH north of Dulles pocket track
50 MPH south of VA-606

All other curves along the alignment with exception of the most of curves within 400' of platforms are 75 MPH.
 #789116  by realtype
 
Thanks for the responses. That's great to hear.

I like to see concrete ties since they look more modern and require much less maintenance (if you purchase the right ones). They'll probably only give you a speed advantage though in high-speed rail situations such as the NEC.
 #789128  by farecard
 
realtype wrote:Thanks for the responses. That's great to hear.

I like to see concrete ties since they look more modern and require much less maintenance (if you purchase the right ones). They'll probably only give you a speed advantage though in high-speed rail situations such as the NEC.

I've always wondered if the rolling stock does not suffer more with the more rigid roadbed.
 #789196  by Sand Box John
 
"farecard"
I've always wondered if the rolling stock does not suffer more with the more rigid roadbed.


It's not the rigid roadbed that inflicts most of the wear and tear on the rolling stock, it's the inherent flaw in the monocoque aluminum car body design. Most of the wear and tear comes from weight of the loads they carry. The 1k cars when they were delivered had a slight crown in them, when loaded to capacity they sag in the middle by as much as an inch. The content flexing from 25 plus years of service created stress crack at the lower corners of the doors at the ends of the cars.
 #789202  by realtype
 
farecard wrote:
realtype wrote:Thanks for the responses. That's great to hear.

I like to see concrete ties since they look more modern and require much less maintenance (if you purchase the right ones). They'll probably only give you a speed advantage though in high-speed rail situations such as the NEC.

I've always wondered if the rolling stock does not suffer more with the more rigid roadbed.
Also remember that the majority of the Metrorail system is either underground or elevated, which means the rails are bolted directly to the concrete bed which provides for greater rigidity than concrete ties on ballast.

Sand Box John wrote:"farecard"
I've always wondered if the rolling stock does not suffer more with the more rigid roadbed.


It's not the rigid roadbed that inflicts most of the wear and tear on the rolling stock, it's the inherent flaw in the monocoque aluminum car body design. Most of the wear and tear comes from weight of the loads they carry. The 1k cars when they were delivered had a slight crown in them, when loaded to capacity they sag in the middle by as much as an inch. The content flexing from 25 plus years of service created stress crack at the lower corners of the doors at the ends of the cars.
Wow, I never realized that. I guess this is why Metro decided not to rehab 1k's then.

I'm assuming they fixed this problem with the newer 5000/6000 series and Breda rehabs?
 #791038  by JackRussell
 
A couple of things. At the Wiehle site, they are now building vertical concrete columns of some sort. My rough guess is that these are 8-12" on a side and square. Once the forms come off, I will go by and take a picture.

There is a staging yard on Tyco Rd where there are long sections of pipe - which looks like the same pipe they use for the ventilation pipe in the tunnel.

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I went for a bike ride the other day, and could see how things were progressing where the WO&D goes under the toll road. They have finished building the bridge support on one side:
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On the opposite side (the West side) they have yet to begin building a support:

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While I was there, work crews were in the process of replacing the high-tension line that goes over the toll road:

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You can see a crew in the foreground sawing the old tower into shorter sections for transport, and crews up in baskets attaching the lines to the new (and taller) towers. I don't know if this is directly related to Metro construction or not - it could be that they saw an opportunity to do the work when the area would be all torn up anyways.

http://www.dullesmetro.com/pdfs/10MAR30 ... erMill.pdf
Beginning  on  or  about  Wednesday,  March  31,  2010,  Dulles  Corridor  Metrorail  Project 
construction  crews  will  begin  pile  driving  in  the  median  of  the  Dulles  International  Airport 
Access Highway (DIAAH) near the Hunter Mill Road Bridge.   
The work will  be  performed  between  the  hours  of  9:30  a.m.  and  6  p.m.  on weekdays  and, 
depending on weather conditions, is expected to be completed by the end of next week.  
I can say from experience that this won't be fun to be near, but fortunately it will only last a week.

Other than this, they are still working along Rt 7. The concrete retaining walls that they will need to shift the traffic are slowly being built, but are not yet complete. I see utility crews working on one thing or another, but they have not removed of the overhead wires in some time now.
 #792444  by Sand Box John
 
The Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project published a collection of resent construction progress pictures.

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Dulles Connector Road north of VA I-66

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Dulles Connector Road Overpass at Pimmit Run

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Dulles Connector Road at Old Chain Bridge Road

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Route 123 at Dulles Connector Road (Tysons East)

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Tysons East Station

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Route 123 at I-495 Crossing

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Tunnel Excavation

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Inbound Tunnel Excavation

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Route 7 at the Route 123 Interchange

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West Cut and Cover Tunnel at Route 7

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Dulles International Airport Access Highway & Dulles Toll Road: W&OD Trail

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Dulles International Airport Access Highway & Dulles Toll Road: Wiehle Avenue Station Construction

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Newly cast posttension elevated guidway segment
 #792773  by Sand Box John
 
"strench707"
Awesome update! Can anyone speculate on when we might start seeing our first sections of roadbed and track anywhere along the line? Is it a matter of weeks,months,or possibly years until any section is at that stage?


Roadbed, first, maybe along the connector between west end of the I-66 fly over approaches and the fly over approaches at Old Chain Bridge.

Track, one document I have read says the junction interlocking and track up to the east end of the I-66 fly over approaches will be completed first. A new train control room will control a segment that will be inserted between the East and West Falls Church stations (K98). The segment will control K&N junction and adjacent trackage. The new interlock will have a #10 double crossover and #15 turnouts connecting the N route to the K Route. The junction turnouts will be under Great Falls Street overpass, the double crossover will be to the east of the junction. WMATA want the this track work in and fully operational before the track work and train control contractors start and major work on the rest of the line. Target date for construction to completed on K&N Junction is 09 07 2011. The rest of the target dates are on pages 62 - 64 of Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project Extension to Wiehle Avenue Project Management Plan (3.89 MB PDF file).
 #794384  by JackRussell
 
strench707 wrote:Awesome update! Can anyone speculate on when we might start seeing our first sections of roadbed and track anywhere along the line? Is it a matter of weeks,months,or possibly years until any section is at that stage?

Davis
Certainly not weeks, and I would doubt months. It wouldn't surprise me if we didn't see actual roadbed or track appear until some time in 2011 or in many areas 2012. Sand Box John's observation about the interlocking is a good one - it makes sense that that would be the first place you would see new rails appear.

For any project like this, they will get started on the items where there are long lead times. For this project that would be the stations, the tunnel, bridges, and areas where the rail is elevated. And for that matter mundane things like utility relocation need to be completed before lanes can be shifted, which needs to happen before they can start on the two stations along Rt 7 (Dominion VA power trucks have been out again, so maybe those last power poles will be coming down soon).

There wouldn't be much point in bringing in the contractor who lays the track to do a short section and then come back months later to do just a little more. It would be really better for them to wait for some of the other contractors to finish and get their equipment packed up and moved out before they got started on these aspects.
 #794408  by Sand Box John
 
The track work contractor on past projects tended to start adjacent to their staging areas and work away. Hard telling where that staging area will end up being. As an example, the southern F Route Green line was staged adjacent to the portal west of the Naylor Road station. The last rail laid was south of the temporary bumper posts south of the Anacostia station. The G Route extension was start adjacent to the portal east of Addison Road. The last rail laid was in the tunnels east of Largo. On both projects the stick rail was welded in the staging area and pulled out to where it was laid. My guess is they will stage in the media of the access road west of the pocket track west of Wiehle Avenue and work east.
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