It will take weeks to repair the dome above the Farragut North Metro Station, where chunks of concrete were dislodged by construction work and fell onto a platform Wednesday afternoon, Metro said.
The Farragut North station on the Red Line reopened Thursday morning. Street-level roadwork involving a jackhammer apparently caused the concrete to fall at about 3:15 p.m. Wednesday and smash onto a bench. No one was injured.
D.C. Department of Transportation Director Gabe Klein said schematics the workers had showed that the tunnel was deeper underground, NBC Washington's John Schriffen reported.
"It appears that the drawings that Metro had and that we had show a little more depth between the bottom of the roadway and the top of the tunnel within the Metro station, so it appears that we hit something, it fell through the ceiling and then actually fell into the station," Klein said.
Metro Assistant General Manager Dave Kubicek told the Metro Board's Safety and Security Committee on Thursday that
jackhammering from the Connecticut Avenue median project broke through the dome above the station. Concrete chunks fell onto the station ceiling panels and then onto the platform below.
A thick plywood cover is in place above the station now, but permanent repairs will take weeks, said Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein.
Inspectors were at the scene all night to make sure the station was safe to reopen this morning.
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The station was closed for the night at 8 p.m. Wednesday. Red Line trains passed through the station but did not stop.
Metro monitors work near its stations and will review the incident with the Department of Transportation, Kubicek said.
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