Metro officials announced a series of weekend delays and station closures on the Orange Line over the next two months that will allow crews to fix track problems near Cheverly that have slowed train speeds for nearly two years.
Displaced portions of track and misaligned bridge structures between the Cheverly and Deanwood stations have forced trains to reduce their speeds from 55 mph to 40 mph since early 2008, shortly after agency engineers learned of the issues.
“In December 2007, there was an incident where a train that was going over the Cheverly bridge struck one of the railings on the [overhead] structure,” spokesman Steven Taubenkibel said. “We noticed that the alignment in the tracks in that area above Beaver Dam Creek was off.”
Repair crews are scheduled to fix the bridge structure, rehabilitate two of the bridge’s piers, realign 500 feet of track and rework underground power communication and train control cables during three weekends next month and two in November, Taubenkibel said.
The repairs will put Orange Line trains onto a single track during the last three weekends of October, Metro said.
The transit system also plans to close all Orange Line stations from Stadium-Armory to New Carrollton during the first and third weekends in November while crews complete repairs to the bridge crossing Beaver Dam Creek.
Portions of track between the Cheverly and Deanwood Metro stations are displaced up to 18 inches, according to agency documents outlining the repairs.
Metro officials blamed the track misalignment on Jemal’s Fairfield Farms LLC, a development company performing work on a piece of property adjacent to the Orange Line.
Metro filed an $11 million lawsuit against the developer late last year, saying there was “significant damage” to the tracks because of soil the developer had piled up near the transit system in Prince George’s County.
The weight of the soil caused a hillside to fail, shifting the ground under track supports between the Cheverly and Deanwood stations, the lawsuit says.
The developer has issued statements denying Metro’s charges, and the suit is ongoing, Taubenkibel said.
