Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project Pictures 04 03 2022
All of the construction has been completed. The MWAA announced substantial completion of the mainline and stations of Phase II of the Silver line on 11 04 2021. On 12 01 2021 they announced substantial completion of Dulles Yard.
WMATA has taken possession of the project after those dates and is continuing the startup process of the testing and certification of all of the systems that support the operation of the line. The signaling system was displaying lunar aspects on the signals in the interlocking as if the railroad was running normal operations. In the more then 45 years I have been following the build out of the railroad, I have never seen this done prior to two weeks before the opening date.
The issues with the warped turnout ties, station and shop precast wall panels, improperly located signal head in Dulles Yard and selected pieces of equipment in the shop have been dealt with or corrected.
There are a small number of punch list items that are still being taken care of. Some of the third rail heaters were found to be not working this past winter and are being corrected. Some of the connectors (boots) that connect the third rail cables from the conduits to the cables that connect to the third rail were improperly installed and is being corrected.
The last of the concrete flat work was completed in late March at the Herndon north entrance. Everywhere else it is done. There have been some cracks in some of the concrete flat work that has been patched a various location. I was quite surprised at the quality of concrete flat work, there was virtually no locations where access panels, manhole cover, drain line clean out plugs and valve covers were not on the same plane as the finished concrete.
All of the way finding signage in the stations presently served by the Silver line have been updated to show the six new station on phase II of the line, (most of these signs have been in place for more then a year). The signage and around the station entrances has been installed including the signs on area roads that direct passengers to the stations. The only signs that have not been installed are the bus stop signs at the bus bays that identify what bus line(s) are served by those bus bays. I think this is because some of the bus routes that will serve the stations has not been totally finalized.
As to the opening date, as I write this no set date has been announced but it has been reported that the opening will likely happen in July at the earliest. Opening delays are no longer related to the construction activities but are now related to the reduced revenue from low ridership as the result of the "pandemic" requiring a higher subsidy to operate and the lack of rolling as the result of the removal of the 7k cars from service because of the bad wheel set.
I hope to make another trip before the extension opens to take some pictures I did not take because of the lack of time I had during this trip.
On an unrelated note. I was stunned at how many new data centers are now up and running or under construction sense I last visited the area in August of 2018.
Pictures at my Flicker Photo Stream
DCMP 04 03 2022 album.
John in the sand box of Maryland's eastern shore.
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