Metro Red Line Bethesda Station
WASHINGTON - The Metro station shutdowns that have interrupted commutes for thousands of DMV residents are nearly complete.
What we know:
The three Red Line stations that were closed for the past two months are getting ready to reopen, and the temporary bus lanes put in place along Wisconsin Avenue are being removed beginning on Labor Day.
READ MORE | Maryland to begin removing temporary bus lanes from Wisconsin Avenue
The Bethesda, Medical Center and Grosvenor-Strathmore stations have been closed since early July for underground construction projects. The stations will be back open on Monday, Sept. 7.
Underground construction
In the meantime, FOX 5 DC got an inside look at the work being done underground at the Bethesda Metro station, where they are adding a new platform that will eventually connect the station to the new Purple Line station.
The work is now at a point where Metro officials say it's safe to have trains running through the stations again.
Metro said aligning the Purple and Red Line stations this far underground while using 50-year-old drawings was a feat.
"So we’re telling them when they start digging their hole that this is where we think it’s at. I can’t get back there, but I can tell you that’s where I think it’s at," said Metro Program Manager Jeanne Acquadro. "So there’s a lot of trust there, number one. And then just them coming down, trusting their geometry as they’re come down… but they’re also trusting that we’re where we say we are. And that I think is the big thing. So when you’re only two inches apart after coming down and blasting through rock 200 feet or 150 feet, it is very much a win."
Some of the work at the Bethesda station will take another 18 months to complete, and the actual connection of the Purple Line is still sometime down the road.
Construction supervisors said the work was completed more quickly and for less expense due to the stations being shutdown.
"There is so much you can get done in 56 days that you either simply can’t get done overnight or it just extends your projects for years as opposed to 56 days," Acquadro said. "So, that’s why I say when we understand the impact of the customer, we see both the negative and the positive because this could get dragged out forever and ever."
Metro said the construction for the Purple Line project is about 92% complete, and testing of the light rail trains is underway along roughly half of the 16-mile alignment.
The Source: Information in this article is from Metro officials.