Metro’s board of directors today is expected to move forward with designs to spruce up the Rosslyn Metrorail station by adding three high-speed elevators that could move thousands more passengers an hour through the busy Orange and Blue Line transfer point.
“There are 32,000 people on an average weekday coming through the station’s entrances and exits,” said Metro spokesman Steven Tuabenkibel. “The elevators would certainly help in terms of movement in and out of the station, and would certainly benefit people who have mobility requirements.”
Currently, the Metro station has escalators and one elevator.
The renovations also are considered necessary to accommodate the influx of new workers and residents from developer JGB’s Central Place buildings, which are planned across the street from the station entrance.
Construction on the project’s 350-foot-tall, 30-story office building is scheduled to begin next summer and end in 2010, JGB managing partner Ken Finkelstein said. A construction timeline has not been set for the 350-unit residential building that will sit adjacent to it, he said.
The new elevators would cost about $35 million, Arlington County Board Member Chris Zimmerman said. JBG would cover one-third of the cost, and Arlington would cover the rest.
Arlington asked Metro to draft preliminary designs using some of the $1.5 million in county funds that were left over from a similar project at the Ballston Metro station, which gained three high-speed elevators in 2006.
According to current plans, a plaza with an elevator bank would be built on JBG property across from the Rosslyn Metro station entrance on North Moore Street.
