WASHINGTON — Commuters now have more specifics on where traffic could get worse through the end of the year and what stations to avoid after Metro announced Wednesday revised round-the-clock track work plans.
While the upcoming work still begins with a Red Line shutdown between Fort Totten and NoMa-Gallaudet, that work has now been extended beyond the originally planned 23 days. It now begins Oct. 29 and runs through Nov. 22
In addition to traditional track work, the work zone is expected to include repairs to crumbling concrete that carries the outbound track near the Rhode Island Ave. station.
The following work zone will be round-the-clock single tracking between East Falls Church and West Falls Church between Nov. 28 and Dec. 21, Metro announced.
Further 24/7 work is still planned to impact all lines at some point through next winter. It is all in addition to “regular” work in the middle of the day, at night and on weekends.
While originally surges had been scheduled to end in March, Metro said at least one surge will now stretch into April.
The changes do not impact the nearly six-week work zone that begins Thursday on the Orange Line with severe impacts at Vienna and Dunn Loring.
That work had been pushed back for the same reasons Metro has rescheduled and extended these other 2016 work zones: additional safety issues and inspection failures that were uncovered by federal investigations and a July derailment.
Metro plans to announce the schedule for the round-the-clock work zones that had already been planned for early 2017 in the next few months. There is no track work planned around Inauguration Day.
Riders who use commuter benefits to pay for rides need to act quickly if the new schedule pushes them toward MARC or VRE since reassigning the benefits needs to be done weeks before the beginning of the month.
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