Get Ready for Delays: Metro Center Work to Resume

REMEMBER THAT BIG PROJECT to fix a sagging platform at the busy Metro Center station? It's ramping up again this President's Day weekend, which means riders should prepare for half-hour delays on the Red, Blue and Orange lines, the transit agency says.

The rehabilitation work, which Metro says is aimed to stabilize the platform that carries Red Line trains over the area that serves the Blue and Orange lines inside the Metro Center station, will begin at 10 p.m. on Friday and last until midnight on Monday. Crews will be making structural concrete repairs as well as replacing bearing pads that help support the bridge, among other things.

Here's how the construction will affect riders:

RED LINE:
» During the day, Red Line trains will start their journeys from Glenmont and Shady Grove every nine minutes. Trains will share a track between Farragut North and Judiciary Square, operating through that area every 18 minutes. Two trains traveling one direction, spaced two minutes apart, will move through the work zone, then two trains will be allowed to travel in the opposite direction.

» After 10 p.m. on Friday and 9:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, Red Line trains will leave the terminal stations 20 minutes apart.

BLUE AND ORANGE LINES:
» During the day, trains will leave the terminal stations — Vienna, New Carrollton, Franconia-Springfield and Largo Town Center — every 16 minutes. Trains will single-track inside the work zone, which will stretch from Farragut West to Smithsonian. As with the Red Line, two trains traveling the same direction, spaced two minutes apart, will be allowed through the work zone every 18 minutes. Then, trains going the opposite direction will use the track.

» After 10 p.m. on Friday and 9:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, Blue and Orange line trains will leave their terminal stations once every 20 minutes.

Metro says that because of the increased wait times customers will likely experience, all trains running on the Red, Blue and Orange lines this weekend will have six to eight cars.

» "Metro to Fix Sagging Platform at the Metro Center Metrorail Station" [WMATA]

Photo by Gerald Martineau/The Washington Post