theater, natural history and conservation, the utterly mundane, and Etruscan 8-tracks
Phase 2 has hit the “substantially complete” milestone. But not so fast—
Metro can begin some testing, but other pre-service evaluations can’t start until work on the rail yard is complete. According to the rail yard project’s most recent monthly update, the estimated timeline for completion is February 2022.
The date for “substantial completion” of the second phase has been bouncing around. Latest estimates are for Labor Day weekend. This is the date that the construction contractor turns the work over to Metro. If the date holds, passenger service to IAD and beyond in early 2022.
A revenue service date for Phase II looks to be fall 2021, at the earliest, as reported by Scott Fields for Reston Now.
While I was away, something was updated: westbound signage now designates the Phase 2 terminus at Ashburn. Station maps still show Phase 2 as under construction, with no station names.
TIL that Metro platforms have a slight slope away from the edge, so that anything casually dropped doesn’t roll onto the tracks. (Ronald H. Deiter, The Story of Metro: Transportation and Politics in the Nation’s Capital, rev/e, 1990, p. 43)
MWAA says that Phase 2 will be “substantially completed” by April 2020. An optimistic estimate of how long Metro will spend testing pegs an opening date of September. But there are known defects that haven’t been addressed. Don’t hold your breath for a September 2020 opening.
So, um, I was apparently the first Twitterite to notice that the pylons at the reconstructed Van Dorn Street station were borked.
In Metro’s defense, as Jordan Pascale reports,
“… yesterday’s media tour preceded Metro inspections that would have flagged and corrected this issue,” Metro spokesperson Ian Jannetta said in an email.
Barring new hitches, MWAA has set 16 July 2020 as the opening date for Phase II, according to reporting by Max Smith. WMATA is noncommittal on the date.
The irritating canard about Metro service to Georgetown, exploded one more time: “How the urban legend of Georgetown residents halting a Metro stop came to be,” by Topher Mathews.
I researched the archives of the Washington Post and the Washington Star, looking for contemporaneous mentions of local opposition to a Metro stop in Georgetown. Throughout the period of the planning of Metro (i.e. the 1960s through to the system’s opening in 1976), I could not find one example.
Phase II may not be in revenue service until this time next year. Quality control has been a sticking point.
More bumps in the road for Phase 2. Lori Aratani has the report.
Earlier this week, test trains began running on the section of track from Innovation Center to west of the airport, as reported by Max Smith.
ICYMI: An archive of conceptual designs for Metro’s system map by Massimo Vignelli.
Defects in precast concrete panels at five of the six stations under construction threaten to delay a 2020 opening of Phase 2 of the Silver Line.
Lori Aratani has an update on Phase 2: design and construction 67% complete, and the project is two years from “substantial completion.” Come Phase 2 in 2020, I will miss boarding at the terminus in the morning, but presumably I will be jostling with fewer people on the platform for a seat.