Metro plans to shut down five stations on the eastern end of the Red Line over Labor Day weekend, as about 500 workers are scheduled to execute the “largest track maintenance rehabilitation project” in the agency’s history.
Spokesman Steven Taubenkibel said stations on the northeast tip of the Red Line, from Glenmont to Takoma, would be closed beginning 10 p.m. Friday. All stations will reopen for normal service at 5 a.m. Tuesday.
Metro workers are scheduled to install new track switches to meet safety recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board. The maintenance crews also will update the tracks’ fire alarms, install new rail ties and lay 2,400 feet of fiber optic cable, according to Metro planning director Jim Hughes.
The cable is expected to improve cellular phone reception for rail riders.
“If we weren’t taking this three-day weekend [to complete the work], we would have over 150 shutdowns at night and over the weekends,” Hughes said.
Metro officials said cramming all the track improvements into a single long weekend will save the agency more than $1 million, and should complicate travel for fewer riders than typical weekend or weeknight closures.
Free shuttle buses will ferry passengers between the Fort Totten station and the closed stations and will be available during the closed stations’ normal operating hours.
Hughes said about 55,000 passengers used the five affected Metro stations during last year’s Labor Day weekend, so Metro has made plans to accommodate the same number of passengers this year.
Hughes said Metro riders inconvenienced by the closures should add 40 minutes to their regular commute times to compensate for the delays.
Metro officials said weekend closures similar to this weekend’s planned maintenance work are likely to happen again and again in the coming months, as Metro implements a number of new safety features.
“We’ve got 30 types of major track efforts identified over the next two years,” Hughes said. “We’re probably going to be doing these for quite some time.”
Metro this year has closed several stations for weekend work, including shutting down the Grosvenor-Strathmore station on the Red Line during the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend and the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Metro station over last year’s Labor Day weekend.
