WMATA Summer 2019 BL/YL Virginia platform project

[Sand Box John]

JDC
Metro's ongoing history photos series is continuing, this time with Van Dorn station. https://www.wmata.com/service/rail/Plat ... fm?id=1051

None of those pictures are of the station, all but one are pictures of the post tension segment used on the bridges over Eisenhower Avenue and Cameron Run. The one is the abutments and columns for the bridge over Cameron Run.

[JDC]

Want to hear a test of the new platform speakers? Go here https://twitter.com/wmata/status/116491 ... 52097?s=20

[JDC]

Metro's final blog post with construction photos of Franconia-Springfield is up. https://www.wmata.com/service/rail/Plat ... fm?id=1050

[JDC]

Metro's ongoing blogging of the 2019 platform improvement project continues, with a post detailing the wrap-up work that remains ongoing. https://www.wmata.com/service/rail/Plat ... ations.cfm. That post features a nice shot of the new globe lights Metro is installing on the outside platforms - the globe is similar to the old ones, but it includes a circular flat panel of LEDs instead of the CFL bulbs. https://www.wmata.com/service/rail/Plat ... Lights.png

[Sand Box John]

Those LED luminaries will not duplicate the charm of the original incandescent bulbs.

I hope I am not the only one that finds the that surface mounted galvanized conduits to be hideously ugly. It is truly disgusting to me how WMATA has continued to bastardized the original Harry Weese architectural symmetry to accommodate more surveillance cameras and upgraded eye candy.

[danib62]

Maybe Weese should have had more foresight and included conduits in his plan for future use in order to make them upgradable.

[Sand Box John]

danib62
Maybe Weese should have had more foresight and included conduits in his plan for future use in order to make them upgradable.

They did, but not in the places WMATA has tacked the additional conduits. Spare were install for all that fiber for cellular and WMATA's network traffic and to accommodate the futures provisions scattered around the system. All of the third rail conduit duct banks have spares.

[JDC]

Metro's latest PR releases confirms stations reopen on Monday, discusses remaining work. https://www.wmata.com/service/rail/Plat ... ervice.cfm

[mtuandrew]

I rode the Pentagon/Landmark shuttle this last Friday. There were probably a dozen people aboard (at 3:30, so pretty early for the afternoon commute still) but the consensus was that they’d miss direct service. There are a lot of apartment & condo-dwellers north of Van Dorn Station (particularly those north of Duke Street/Little River Turnpike) who are best served by direct bus to Pentagon rather than having to backtrack to the south. It doesn’t help that Van Dorn Street is a giant mess with traffic.

Also, they still haven’t fixed the typography on the Van Dorn Station signs from Helvetica Black back to Helvetica Bold

[JDC]

I have wondered about that, too. There is certainly some inconvenience to buses (capacity, waiting outside, etc), and they only work so well given the current infrastructure, but on several days my commute was quicker being able to get onto an express bus at Franconia-Springfield to Pentagon.

[JDC]

I was back at Eisenhower Avenue station this morning. The new platform tile is noticeably better: it has a really good grip and I look forward to the first rainy day without worrying about slipping. The platform edges look very nice with their new granite blocks, but I am surprised that the flashing lights (which are white LEDS) are not brighter. I was really surprised that all of the old back lit advertising and signage has been replaced by these giant LCD screens (which Metro has already rolled out to many underground stations). I did not realize Metro was doing away with all of that and replacing it with these screen-mounted pillars. For a small station like Eisenhower, they have a large number of them, too. Metro also changed where the PIDs are located. They used to have one on each side in the middle of a platform, which was fine when trains stopped in the middle but very inconvenient with 8-car trains. Now, they have two PIDs on each side located near the ends of the platform. Lastly, there were several delays this morning and I really noticed how much clearer the announcements were with the new speaker system and how nice it was that the PIDs display the announcements scrolling across the bottom of the screen while at the same time continuing to show three upcoming train times. If there are no scrolling announcements, the PIDs display the next 5 arriving trains. It was cloudy this morning, so it remains to be seen how easy it is to read these new PIDs in direct sunlight.

[YOLO]

Some details on the orange line work scheduled in 2020: https://wtop.com/tracking-metro-24-7/20 ... mmer-2020/

Tentative plans call for complete closure of Vienna and Dunn Loring Stations, single track open at WFC, trains will single track but NOT stop at EFC

[STrRedWolf]

Some details on the orange line work scheduled in 2020: https://wtop.com/tracking-metro-24-7/20 ... mmer-2020/

Tentative plans call for complete closure of Vienna and Dunn Loring Stations, single track open at WFC, trains will single track but NOT stop at EFC

Just going over it via Google Maps... and that's going to be one nasty route for the buses. I can see express service Vienna to Ballston non-stop via I-66 (north side of Vienna) but anything else is primarily going to be taking US 29 to reach all the stations to East Falls Church, then the quick I-66 stint to Ballston.

[JDC]

I, too, had looked at Google maps for both the O/S and then G/Y shutdowns to see how they could route shuttle buses. I came to the conclusion that Metro had it easy for the B/Y shutdown based on the nearby roads and highways. Shuttle buses are going to be a lot more difficult for the upcoming shutdowns.

[mtuandrew]

The only place where there will be a lot of surface road congestion (besides half a mile of Fairfax Drive in Ballston) is Dunn Loring on the Orange Line. That would have been best served from East Falls Church or Vienna (both just off US 29/Lee Highway), but a bus shuttle from West Falls Church looping around Shreve, Lee Highway, Gallows, Idylwood, and Leesburg Pike will have to do. Everything else will be tollway driving, and I’m assuming WMATA and EZPass will adjust tolls as needed to allow a little more space for all the buses.

Ballston is gonna be a busy bus transfer station. Hopefully some of the Silver Line traffic will be siphoned off by express buses from Rosslyn (and Pentagon maybe?) to Tysons and Wiehle, because those trains will be mighty delayed by that single-track section at EFC. Also hoping that WMATA reopens the second EFC track early in the rebuild process.