New development around Foggy Bottom’s already bursting Metro station isn’t enough to get a badly needed second station entrance built, unlike its counterpart in Rosslyn.
The Foggy Bottom station is the eighth-busiest one in the system and handles more than 40,800 passengers per day — more than Baltimore’s entire light rail system. Yet it’s the only one of those eight that is served by a single entrance, creating problems of safety and efficiency that a Metro study said will only get worse over time.
Meanwhile, construction on a second entrance began this week in Rosslyn, which handles fewer than half the daily passengers as Foggy Bottom.
Metro’s study in 2007 recommended a second station entrance at the intersection of 22nd and I streets, one block east of the existing entrance. The university plans to break ground on that block next year on a $275 million science and engineering complex.
But a new station entrance would cost an estimated $21.2 million — and the city and school are passing the buck.
Metro spokeswoman Angela Gates said funding a station improvement is typically up to the station’s surrounding jurisdiction. A spokesman for the District Department of Transportation said while the agency would likely support a second entrance, it’s not footing the bill.
“As far as I know, we’re not proposing it,” said John Lisle.
He said it is up to the university or developer Boston Properties to raise the issue.
“If it’s something that GW wanted or they were proposing, I would assume then most likely they would strike up negotiations with the city to … share the cost,” he said.
Boston Properties did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Jill Sankey, a GW spokeswoman, noted the developer did make a city zoning board-mandated $100,000 contribution in 2007 to Metro for design and engineering of a second station entrance. But Metro declined the contribution and the zoning board gave it to the Housing Production Trust Fund.
Gates said the contribution was too small.
“We did not believe that amount would have been sufficient to take the concept plans to a higher level of design specificity … [which] are much more time-consuming and expensive,” she said in an e-mail.
In the case of the Rosslyn station, where ridership is expected to reach 22,000 by 2020, Arlington County contributed $32.6 million to cover the cost of the project.
Chris Zimmerman, vice chairman of the Arlington County Board and Metro board member, said station modifications ultimately require action from the jurisdiction and a developer that’s onboard.
“It’s a matter of what the jurisdiction wants to do,” he said. “[In Rosslyn], it was a fundamental part of the planning around the station.”
