Contractors for the Washington Metropolitan Airports Authority have been slow to repair post-Operational Readiness issues for Metro’s Silver Line, and that could slow progress in getting the rail extension ready to open.
“DTP [Dulles Transit Partners] and Bechtel are behind schedule on half the items,” Metro deputy general manager Rob Troup said in a conference call with reporters on Monday. “We expected them to be further along.”
MWAA, which built the $5.6 billion rail extension that will run from East Falls Church to Reston’s Wiehle Avenue, and Metro agreed in April to allow the airports authority extra time to complete some punch list items, even after Metro took control of the project.
Metro took over the project on May 27, and as of last week it was saying things were progressing on track towards an expected summer opening.
While the Silver Line is more than six months behind schedule, an opening date for service has never been set. WAMU, citing transit union sources, reported on Monday that the Silver Line would conduct simulated service the week of July 20 and begin passenger service a week later. Troup dismissed that information, however.
“We did not set any specific date,” he said. “That date is TBD.”
Some of the items that have been fixed are fencing, a faulty elevator at the Tysons Corner station and equipment at Wiehle-Reston East that will prevent work equipment from rolling on to the track, said Troup. An audit of the re-installed station speakers is now being conducted.
One of the items that needs attention before service can begin include painting of a tunnel handrail “that we are concerned about the effort,” said Troup. Also of concern: ponding and drainage issues in some stations have not been fixed.
“We don’t want to start service and then be out there regrading platforms,” said Troup. “It is not unusual to have to go back and do some re-work on some items. Bechtel is a good contractor, it is just a matter of getting focus and getting the work completed.”
A Bechtel spokeswoman said the contractor continues “to work diligently in collaboration” with the MWAA and Metro and that “good progress is being made.”
Meanwhile, at Thursday’s Metro Board of Directors meeting, the board will vote on authorizing general manager Richard Sarles the authority to set the Silver Line’s opening date.
The law enforcement drill at Metro’s Wiehle-Reston East station went off as planned Sunday, with more than 100 public safety officers taking part in the exercise, a Metro spokesman said.
The next drill, a larger one that will include fire and rescue personnel will take place later this month, said Metro spokesman Dan Stessel.
In Metro’s weekly conference call with the media on Monday, the organization said that progress has been satisfactory in all areas as the rail line moves toward a potential summer opening date.
“Nothing has come up that has put off the goal of opening this summer,” said Lynn Bowersox, Metro Assistant General Manager of Customer Service, Communications and Marketing. ”
She added that reviews from the Federal Transit Administration began as soon as Metro received the project from the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) last week.
MWAA and its contractors built the $2.9 billion extension, which will have five stops from McLean to Reston’s Wiehle Avenue.
While officials never set a specific opening date, it was hoped first riders would board in late 2013 or early 2014. Metro began a 90-day training and review period, which puts the line on track to open by late August.
If you see a police presence near Wiehle Avenue and Sunset Hills Road Sunday morning, don’t be alarmed. It’s only a test.
Metro Transit Police and other law enforcement agencies are holding a security exercise at Wiehle-Reston East Station Sunday at 8 a.m.
Metro officials said earlier this week they would be conducting two emergency scenarios on the new Silver Line.
Said Metro:
“The goal of the exercise is to build coordination and provide an opportunity to practice unified command in preparation for the opening of the Silver Line, which includes a number of jurisdictions who share responsibility for the areas surrounding the five new Metrorail stations.
In addition to Metro Transit Police, participants in the exercise will include the Fairfax County Police Department, Virginia State Police, and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police. The Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department will provide support.”
The exercise, which is closed to media and public, will take several hours.
Later in the month, public safety groups will conduct an emergency drill on one of the aerial Metro platforms near the Spring Hill station.
The Silver Line reached operational readiness on Tuesday, transferring from Metropolitan Washington Transit Authority’s control to Metro’s control. Metro is now in a 90-day testing and training period, which puts the $2.9 billion, five-station extension on pace to open in August.
Metro General Manager Rob Troup said this week there is still no official projected opening day.
“We feel we are in a very good position,” Troup said in response to a question about opening this summer. “We are working closely with MWAA, and they have allowed us to get our personnel in there early and we have done training for station managers [and other personnel]. I don’t want to give anything definitive. We may have to push [the opening] beyond if we find something of concern to us.”
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (Metro) officially took possession of the Silver Line Tuesday morning, marking a significant milestone in the rail extension’s timeline towards opening this summer.
The handoff took place at 5:30 a.m., said Metro deputy general manager Rob Troup.
The opening of Phase 1, which will run from East Falls Church to Reston’s Wiehle Avenue, is more than six months behind its projected opening schedule, though neither Metro nor the Metropolitan Washington Transit Authority (MWAA) announced a firm opening date.
Operational readiness (ORD) means that MWAA, which built the $2.9 billion extension, is finished with its part and Metro can now begin a 90-day training and inspection period.
“We are very, very pleased to get to ORD,” Troup said in a conference call with reporters. “Service is going to be significant to the people in Northern Virginia.”
There was no announcement about when the line will be open for service, however.
“We feel we are in a very good position,” Troup said in response to a question about opening this summer. “We are working closely with MWAA, and they have allowed us to get our personnel in there early and we have done training for station managers [and other personnel]. I don’t want to give anything definitive. We may have to push [the opening] beyond if we find something of concern to us.
“But we are testing, hiring and training and feel we are in a very good position.”
Troup said there are a few small items that MWAA contractor Dulles Transit Services needs to address in the coming days. Among them: contract progress and paperwork; drainage systems in stations; and fencing work that needs to be finished.
The bobbing track issue and faulty station speakers have been fixed, Troup said.
Other news of note:
About a week prior to opening, there will be simulated rail service, where trains will run on their regular schedule. The simulated service will not include passengers. When the line opens, trains will run every six minutes during rush hour and every 12 to 20 minutes at other times.
Metro security has been working with local law enforcement (Fairfax County Police, Virginia State Police and Airport Authority Police) for a year, said Metro Transit Police Chief Ron Pavlik. Eight hundred first responders have been trained.
There will be two full-scale emergency exercises with law enforcement agencies, Fairfax County Fire Rescue, Virginia Department of Transportation and D.C. Department of Transportation, Pavlik said.
One will be a drill simulating a “real life scenario,” he said. The other will simulate an emergency on the aerial tracks near the Spring Hill station. The drills will likely occur on a weekend, but no date has been announced.
The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority’s (MWAA) Board of Directors this week finalized the bond sale that will complete the financing of the Silver Line.
The $422 million in Dulles Toll Revenue bonds, which were priced on May 14, will close on May 22, MWAA’s Board of Directors announced at its monthly meeting on Wednesday.
From MWAA:
High investor interest helped drive down interest rates for the bonds, which were rated Baa1 by Moody’s and Baa1 by Standard & Poor’s. Drivers on the Dulles Toll Road will ultimately benefit from the low interest rates achieved on these bonds.
With the completion of the bond sale and the May 1 announcement of federal approval of the application for a low-interest loan through the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program, major financing for the Airports Authority’s portion of the Silver Line project will soon be complete.
“Our pledge from the beginning of our stewardship of the Silver Line and the Dulles Toll Road has been to limit the impact on drivers,” said Airports Authority Chairman Frank M. Conner III.
“This final bond sale in a low interest-rate environment, as well as other efforts such as the recently approved low-interest federal loan and the $300 million committed by the Commonwealth of Virginia for the project, allow us to fulfill that pledge. And we will continue working to find cost savings that can be passed along to Toll Road users.”
The board has said that when the financing is in place, toll road users can count on toll rates to remain frozen until 2018. Some had predicted that rates would rise as high as $18 in the next several years without additional sources of financing. Read More
The Silver Line will be considered at operational readiness by May 27, Metro General Manager Richard Sarles said on Monday.
That date — which may change by a few days on either end — will mean Metro has taken control of the project from the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. It will also mark the beginning of a 90-day testing and training window for Metro, meaning the rail extension from East Falls Church to Reston’s Wiehle Avenue is expected to open by the end of August.
However, Sarles would not speculate on an exact opening date — or even an exact opening month.
“We will be good to go when all the work is done,” he said on Metro’s weekly call with reporters. “When [MWAA contractor] Bechtel’s work is done, when the Tri-State Oversight Committee and the FTA [Federal Transit Administration] have done their inspections and when we say we are good to go.”
Sarles said the 90 days is a maximum, and there is a chance Metro will not need the whole time period.
“We are going to assume 90 days or we will improve on 90 says,” he said.
The opening of the Silver Line’s Phase 1 is more than six months behind schedule.
Sarles said that the vast majority of issues found in late April, when Metro agreed to allow MWAA (and its contractor) more time to fix outstanding issues, such as faulty station speakers, loss of speed readouts and glitches in tracking software.
Sarles said “less than a handful of items” remain to be fixed. Among them: final speaker improvements, fixes to a track gauge and installation of a protective guard on for an escalator. A bobbing track issue discovered last week has been found to be a component issue and will be fixed today, said Sarles.
Operational readiness will happen at a specific time and date, said Sarles.
Once Metro takes control, it will be able to conduct inspections, testing and emergency drills. Training will include a large simulated emergency drill featuring law enforcement officials.
Photo: Metro file
A spokesman for Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (Metro) says that the Silver Line bobbing track issue officials had expressed concern with earlier this week has been determined to be a component issue rather than a systemic one.
That means the faulty component will be replaced, and Metro will likely announce the rail extension’s operational readiness date on Monday, said Metro’s Dan Stessel.
“That news alleviates the concern we had with MWAA’s progress towards an operational readiness date,” he said.
Operational readiness means the outstanding issues have been addressed and Phase 1 of the $5.6 billion project is ready to be turned over to Metro. Metro will then have up to 90 days to conduct its own testing and training.
The opening of the Silver Line, which will run from East Falls Church to Tysons Corner to Reston’s Wiehle Avenue, is more than six months behind schedule.
In a call with reporters on Monday, Rob Troup, Metro’s Deputy GM of Operations, said there was an issue with the bobbing track circuit, which connects the Silver and Orange lines east of the East Falls Church Station. When there is an issue, a circuit will read a false sense of occupancy and the approaching train will go into a braking mode, said Troup.
The April 23 agreement between Metro and Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which is building the Silver Line, called for adding four blocking capacitors to address the issue. The fixes fared well in testing, but over the weekend one failed, said Troup.
Even with the outstanding issues — Metro had a list of 33 items in 13 categories that MWAA needed to fix — Troup said this week he was “encouraged by the progress and projected ridership “sometime this summer.”
Graphic: Metro file
A Metro official says the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) is making progress on pre-operational fixes to the Silver Line, however he still cannot pinpoint an opening date for the first phase of the $5.6 billion rail extension.
“We are tracking to be able to provide service sometime this summer,” Rob Troup, Metro Deputy General Manager of Operations said Monday in a media conference call. “A lot depends on progress MWAA makes in resolving issues. I can’t tell you an operational readiness date, but I am encouraged by the progress.”
Troup said that MWAA is “at the more than the halfway point for the pre-ORD items.”
On April 23, MWAA and Metro agreed to accept the project as “substantially complete,” but to also allow MWAA additional time to complete certain items. Without this agreement, MWAA would have been required to complete all items before Metro takes control, meaning an opening date that would be later in the year.
The project is already nearly eight months behind schedule.
Troup said there are 13 pre-operation readiness (ORD) categories, and those categories have 33 subsets of fixes. Among those deemed fixed are station leaks (including some at Wiehle-Reston East) and a loss of speed readout issue. Faulty wiring in the station speakers is on its way to being fixed, as is an issue with the Horton Remote Terminal Units (RTUs), which help run the crucial Automatic Train Control software, said Troup.
“The RTU issue…is not a vital safety issue,” said Troup. “It is a reliability issue.”
Troup said Metro wants 98 percent RTU reliability. After Metro accepts operational readiness, there will be a complete changeout of the system.
Over the weekend, an issue arose with the bobbing track circuit, said Troup. Bobbing Track Circuits have to do with the junction of the Silver and Orange lines east of the East Falls Church Station. A circuit will go into a false sense of occupancy and the approaching train will go into a braking mode, said Troup.
The April 23 agreement called for adding four blocking capacitors to address the issue. The fixes fared well in testing, but over the weekend one failed, said Troup. He said this is also a reliability issue and not a safety issue, and after operational readiness this will also have a system upgrade.
Additional testing is being performed to see if the failure was a system issue or a component failure. Those test results should be available on Tuesday, Troup said.
Once Metro and MWAA agree on pre-operational readiness, Metro will have 90 days to complete its own testing and training.
Photo: Metro file photo
Metro General Manager and CEO Richard Sarles announced an agreement on Thursday with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority that will move the Silver Line closer to opening day, possibly this summer.
Phase 1 of the $5.6 billion Silver Line — which will run from East Falls Church to Reston’s Wiehle Avenue — is more than six months behind schedule.
Under the agreement, Metro will allow MWAA additional time to complete certain items after the project is turned over to Metro, but prior to the start of passenger service, Metro says. Without this agreement, the Airports Authority would have been required to complete all items before Metro takes control, meaning an opening date that would be later in the year.
The Airports Authority is still required to address all priority items — those that affect reliability or require significant track access — prior to handing the project off to Metro. Some examples:
- Resolving items identified during system performance demonstrations, such as loss of speed readouts (a signal problem that affects reliability)
- Installation of capacitors to resolve interlocking “bobbing” track circuits
- Improve the reliability of traction power circuit breakers
- Completion of all work that requires significant track access or single tracking
“While there are still outstanding items for the Airports Authority and their contractor to resolve, today’s agreement allows us to move this project closer to opening day for our customers by allowing certain tasks to be completed after the project is in Metro’s control,” Sarles, Metro General Manager and Chief Executive Officer, said in a statement.
“We expect that the Airports Authority will complete the remaining items in a timely fashion, thereby allowing us to open the line this summer.”
MWAA also announced Wednesday that it has accepted Dulles Transit Partners’ declaration of substantial completion — even though there are still many punchlist items that need to be repaired.
“Achieving substantial completion is a significant milestone,” said Airports Authority President and CEO Jack Potter. “We have conducted a thorough review of the contractor’s submission and are satisfied that Phase 1 has met the contractual requirements that will allow the project to now move to the next steps in the process to begin passenger service.”
After substantial completion, the next major milestone is the “Operational Readiness Date” (ORD), which is when the project is turned over to Metro’s custody and control. If the Airports Authority completes all priority tasks in a timely manner, ORD may be achieved in late May, Sarles said.
Following ORD, Metro has up to 90 days for testing, employee training and emergency drills prior to the start of passenger service, says Metro. With today’s agreement, Metro will permit the Airports Authority to use this time to complete remaining tasks including:
- Providing to Metro safety certification documentation demonstrating that all open items have been closed
- Resolving traction power reliability issues
- Executing a contract for the replacement of track circuit modules
- Resolving leaks and drainage issues
- Grounding of tunnel handrails and replacement of coaxial cable in the tunnel
- Replacing public address speakers to meet Virginia Department of General Services requirements
- Elevator shaft and piston replacement at Tysons Corner station
- All work required to obtain permanent certificates of occupancy
Many of those tasks were found deficient when DTP first filed for substantial completion in February. DTP was supposed to have addressed and fixed those issues in the interim.
Dulles Transit Partners filed for “substantial completion” for Phase 1 on April 9. It was the second time the contractor, a division of Reston-based Bechtel, filed. DTP said its work was finished on Feb. 7, but MWAA’s review showed issues in many areas, including ongoing issue with the Automatic Train Control software.
Last week, MWAA awarded a $1.8 million contract to a New York company to upgrade the ATC controls. That could take a year, MWAA said.
Metro’s Silver Line has not yet opened, but the Washington Metropolitan Airports Authority (MWAA) is already seeking a $1.8 million technology upgrade of the Automatic Train Control system.
MWAA is building the Silver Line rail extension. The 11-mile, $2.8 billion Phase 1 of the Silver Line will run from East Falls Church to Reston’s Wiehle Avenue. When it is satisfactorily completed — a decision that could come in the next two weeks — the project will be turned over to Metro, which will then conduct its own testing before setting an opening date.
The Dulles Corridor Committee of the MWAA Board of Directors on Wednesday approved awarding a sole source contract to Alstom Signaling, Inc., of Henrietta, N.Y. for an Automatic Train Control (ATC) technology upgrade.
Alstom previously installed the Horton Remote Terminal Units (RTUs) as part of the design of the Automatic Train Control System. That system is used throughout the existing Metro system, MWAA says.
But in testing the system for the Silver Line, the RTUs have proven faulty.
“The Horton RTUs have proven unreliable in the Phase 1 application,” MWAA documents read. “Increased reliability can be achieved by incorporating the use of integral circuit boards in the Alstom Vital Processor Interlock (VPI) instead of using RTU equipment.”
“This is a reliability issue, not a safety issue,” the documents read. “The technology upgrade will take one year to complete.”
MWAA says that it will advise Dulles Transit Partners, the Bechtel unit that constructed the rail line, to make adjustments to improve reliability. It also says that once service begins, WMATA (Metro) will provide “extra staffing at the Project’s expense to ensure reliability” and that Alstom is the only contractor able to provide the necessary equipment for the upgrades.
MWAA officials said early Wednesday that roughly $23 million is available in the Silver Line contingency fund.
The ATC system has been a bug in constructing the Silver Line — and it is crucial to get it right. In 2009, the system failed to detect the presence of a train on the tracks leading to a Red Line crash that killed nine people and injured dozens of others.
In June, Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff said he was troubled by unauthorized design changes Alstom made without consulting Metro. In addition, because of a shortage of equipment, Alstom workers allegedly moved some control boards from one monitoring station to another, which meant they were checking the same set of boards rather than new ones, according to The Washington Post.
In November, more issues with the ATC system were found, leading to a delay of several months.
While an official opening date was never announced, Phase 1 was originally estimated to be ready to hand off to Metro last summer for a December 2013 opening. Last spring, that was moved to a November turnover. In November, the project was delayed further while problems with the Automatic Train Control System were addressed.
On Feb. 7, DTP announced it had reached “substantial completion,” meaning it felt the construction was finished. MWAA completed a two-week review and found a host of problems, including some with the ATC system.
DTP says it fixed the problems, and on April 9 — the same day $25,000 a day penalties would kick in as part of the construction contract — submitted the project again. MWAA is in the midst of another 15-day review.
Once MWAA signs off on the DTP’s work it will turn the Silver Line over to Metro, which then has 90 days to complete its own testing.
While there is still no firm opening date for Metro’s Silver Line, Wednesday’s declaration of substantial completion by Dulles Transit Partners moves the rail line one step closer to its first riders.
DTP submitted the project for approval yesterday, avoiding a deadline in which fines of $25,000 a day were about to begin. The contractor, part of Reston-based Bechtel Corporation, said it has reached “substantial completion” on the $2.7 billion Phase 1 of the project, which will bring rail from East Falls Church to Reston’s Wiehle Avenue.
This was the second time DTP said it had reached substantial completion, which states that the contractor’s construction portion is finished. It previously filed on Feb. 7, but during Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority’s review MWAA found issues in 7 of 12 areas, ranging from leaks to problems with the automatic train control system. Among the work done to make repairs in last few weeks: Speakers in all five stations had to be reinstalled and cables fixed in the Tysons tunnel.
MWAA will now begin another 15-day review period.
“We have been working closely with DTP as they have addressed remaining outstanding items, and we will continue to work closely with them during this review and while they work on a variety of additional required tasks,” MWAA said in a statement.
“Substantial completion is an important step in the process of turning the project over to WMATA [Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority]. Another step will be ‘operational readiness,’ which WMATA will declare before starting their own testing and other processes. No date has been set for turning the project over to WMATA, and WMATA has not set an opening date for service.
If MWAA deems the problems are not repaired, then DTP would another indefinite repair period. However, the contractor has emphasized its intention that this week’s completion declaration would be final and correct.
If the project moves on to WMATA (Metro), there will be a maximum of 90 days for its own testing. Metro officials have previously said they hope it won’t need the full 90s days.
Officials had hoped to finish testing last September for a possible December opening. But delays were announced last summer, then again in November as DTP worked to fix the automatic tracking system. The latest issues pushed the opening back another eight weeks.
An optimistic prediction for first riders would now be June or July.
Reston development-watch group Reston 2020 is skeptical that the work is suddenly at “substantial completion” on the same day as the penalties would start.
“If ‘completed when it needs to be’ is the criterion, then Phase 1 was “substantially complete” when it was first scheduled to be last September,” Reston 2020 co-chair Terry Maynard wrote in a blog post. “What kind of overlapping, dysfunctional, disorganized engineering process is this? … The problem now for the MWAA Silver Line Project Management team is that it is being squeezed on both sides–the contractor who wants to avoid fines that begin April 9 and MWAA’s Board which wants to avoid the perception MWAA has managed this project poorly.”
As expected, the contractor building Metro’s Silver Line submitted the project for approval on Wednesday, avoiding a deadline in which fines of $25,000 a day were about to begin, Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority officials confirmed.
Dulles Transit Partners, part of Reston-based Bechtel Corporation, said it has reached “substantial completion” on the $2.7 billion Phase 1 of the project, which will bring rail from East Falls Church to Reston’s Wiehle Avenue.
“We are very pleased with the progress and moving the Silver Line one step closer to full operation,” Bechtel officials said in a statement on Tuesday.
Dulles Transit Partners originally said on Feb. 7 that it had reached the substantial completion mark. Substantial completion is the point at which they feel their job is done and ready to be turned over to Metro. Metro would then have a 90-day period to conduct its own testing.
However, part of the handoff involves Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) conducting its own two-week review, and in late February MWAA found issues in 7 of 12 areas, ranging from leaks to problems with the automatic train control system. It was revealed at a recent MWAA Board meeting that speakers in all five stations have to be reinstalled, and there is a cable issue in the Tysons tunnel.
DTP says those issues have been fixed. MWAA will now conduct another two-week review process. If the project is deemed ready to go, the rail could open in June or July.
“We are that much closer to leaving the train station,” Rep. Gerry Connolly said at an appearance in Reston. “It will be operational, we hope, by July.”
According to DTP’s contract, if the work is not finished starting April 10, DTP faces a $25,000-a-day penalty until the work is done. If the project is not completed 92 days after that April date, the contractor would have to pay roughly $2.3 million in fines, plus an additional $75,000 a day.
Ultimately, if the project is delayed more than six months from that April date, DTP could be required to pay more than $9 million total. Under the terms of the contract, the payments are capped at $60 million.
Former Congressman Tom Davis, a MWAA board member said recently that the most important thing is that the rail line is 100-percent safe and ready to go before opening.
“Hopefully, we can meet the April 9 deadline and it will be acceptable and we could move on,” Davis said. “But we want the public to know that when this transit system opens, it is going to be Grade A reader for business. It is going to be safe and it is going to work efficiently.”
While a opening date for the Silver Line was never set, officials had hoped to finish testing last September for a possible December opening. But delays were announced last summer, then in November when the tracking system issues were discovered.
After the March setback, officials are no longer estimated when the turnover may be as DTP works to correct the problems. However, a source told WTOP last week that the Silver Line may open by July 4.
This story will be updated with further reaction from MWAA.
Photo courtesy of MWAA
A source tells WTOP that Metro’s Silver Line could be up and running by July 4 after significant progress in correcting issues throughout the last few weeks.
From WTOP:
The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority continues to run tests on the tracks and the contractor building the Silver Line could get approval to turn the project over to Metro within the next two weeks.
Multiple sources tell WTOP that it’s more likely that the Silver Line will be completed and certified before the end of the month than it being delayed into May. Once MWAA certifies the project as complete, it would turn over the project to Metro. Project Director Pat Nowakowski has told WTOP the time between certification and turnover to Metro would be quick.
The opening of the 11-mile rail extension from East Falls Church to Reston’s Wiehle Avenue has been delayed several times — though an exact opening date was never set.
The Silver Line was originally estimated to be finished last summer, with a September handoff to Metro and a possible December opening. In July, the estimate was pushed back, as it was again in November when issues were found with the Automatic Train Control system.
In early February, construction contractor Dulles Transit Partners told the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority it had reached “substantial completion” on construction of the $2.8 billion project.
But MWAA completed a 15-day review and found issues in 7 of 12 areas, ranging from leaks to problems with the automatic train control system. It was revealed at a MWAA Board meeting two weeks ago that speakers in all five stations have to be reinstalled, and there is a cable issue in the Tysons tunnel.
According to DTP’s contract, the work is not finished starting April 10, DTP faces a $25,000-a-day penalty until the work is done. If the project is not completed 92 days after that April date, the contractor would have to pay roughly $2.3 million in fines, plus an additional $75,000 a day.
Ultimately, if the project is delayed more than six months from that April date, DTP could be required to pay more than $9 million total. Under the terms of the contract, the payments are capped at $60 million.
One Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority board member called the Silver Line saga a “soap opera.” Another suggested the board start working with lawyers.
That was yesterday. Today, all parties are looking at many more weeks/months of delays before Metro’s Silver Line opens.
At the MWAA board meeting on Wednesday, Dulles Transit Partners, the contractor that constructed the $2.7-billion Phase 1 of the rail extension that will run from East Falls Church to Reston’s Wiehle Avenue, said it could not predict when ongoing problems with the Silver Line would be fixed.
Therefore, it is impossible to predict an opening date. While no official opening has ever been set, there once was a time, more than a year ago, where the first passengers were estimated to ride the line by December of 2013.
DTP, a division of Bechtel, told MWAA in early February that it had reached “substantial completion.” But in their own review, MWAA found many problems. Among them — faulty connections in the loudspeakers at all five stations and ongoing issues with the Automatic Train Control System.
If the work is not satisfactorily turned over to MWAA by April 9, DTP could face millions of dollars in fines.
“Our goal is to have this wrapped up by April 9, before fines set in,” MWAA President and CEO Jack Potter said Wednesday.
While no completion date was ever given by MWAA, preliminary estimates were that the line would be completed by August or September 2013 and the first passengers would ride by the end of 2013. That later was pushed into early 2014. In January, the original problem with the ATC was discovered, delaying completion until at least spring. With this latest setback, could it be fall of 2014 — or even early 2015 — before the Silver Line sees riders?
Reston Now readers responded to a poll in Februrary. Of 506 votes, 27 percent said they predicted the line would open in August or September 2014; 26 percent said June/July 2014; 18 percent said 2o15.
Given the latest issues, what is your prediction now?
If the contractor building Metro’s Silver Line does not fix ongoing problems and satisfactorily turn the project over to Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority by April 9, it will face fines of $25,000 a day.
After a tense MWAA board meeting on Wednesday, it looks as though contractor Dulles Transit Partners may be hard pressed to make that deadline.
It was revealed Wednesday that there are still significant problems with the 11-mile rail extension, which will run from East Falls Church to Reston’s Wiehle Avenue. Problems range from speakers in the stations that are not up to fire code to continuing issues with the Automatic Train Control System.
DTP told MWAA on Feb. 7 that it had reached “substantial completion” on the $2.8 billion project. However, after a 15-day review period, MWAA found issues in 7 of 12 areas, including performance issues with the ATC system, water leaks in buildings, and elevator and escalator problems.
If the work is not finished starting April 10, DTP would face a $25,000-a-day penalty until the work is done. If the project is not completed 92 days after that April date, the contractor would have to pay roughly $2.3 million in fines, plus an additional $75,000 a day.
Ultimately, if the project is delayed more than six months from that April date, DTP could be required to pay more than $9 million total. Under the terms of the contract, the payments are capped at $60 million.
“Our goal is to have this wrapped up by April 9, before fines set in,” MWAA President and CEO Jack Potter said Wednesday.
Pat Nowakowski, executive director for the Dulles Corridor Rail Association, said there is no estimated opening date for the Silver Line and there is no projected date for when DTP will be done fixing the issues. He said “when the contractor submits paperwork this time around, they are working to be certain the project is complete.”
WTOP reports that the entire speaker system and the ATC system may have to be replaced, which could delay the project even further. WTOP also says that the MWAA Board is assembling a legal team in case the contractor misses another deadline. MWAA officials said the cost of the corrections will be covered by a contingency fund.
While no completion date was ever given by MWAA, original estimates were that the line would be completed by August or September 2013 and the first passengers would ride by the end of 2013. That later was pushed into early 2014. In January, the original problem with the ATC was discovered, delaying completion until at least spring.
