Agency plans to replace 3 escalators Metro plans to shut down one of the two entrances at the Dupont Circle station, its fifth-busiest station, for as long as one year to replace three escalators, the agency said Thursday.
The closure of the 19th Street entrance on the south side of the circle would begin early next year though an exact timeline hasn’t been established.
“I would hope to do it in less than one year, but that is the plan for the moment,” Metro General Manager Richard Sarles told reporters. “I don’t want to raise expectations for customers.”
Escalator outages have been plaguing that Red Line station and the whole transit agency, with as many as one in five out of service systemwide. But the lengthy shutdown at Dupont is the most dramatic. Sarles called it “another example of short-term pain for long-term gain” as the transit system rebuilds its aging network.
Riders and Metro board members immediately balked at the time frame, pointing out that the Empire State Building was constructed in less time.
“It’s a good benefit once it’s over with, but to close it down for a year?” said Eric Tanner, who uses the entrance to get to his job in West End. “That’s pretty intense.”
Metro’s top lieutenant, Dave Kubicek, insisted that crews would be working on the project in multiple shifts throughout each day and over the weekends to get the work done as fast as possible.
The approximately $12 million project, part of an $177 million Red Line repair contract with Mass Electric Construction, is similar to the escalator replacement currently underway at the Foggy Bottom station. The agency is replacing three escalators there but also adding a staircase and a canopy over the entrance. That work is also expected to take a year, but the agency has been able to keep the entrance open.
The difference, Metro officials said, is that the Dupont Circle escalators are 188 feet long compared with Foggy Bottom’s 65 feet.
The space is also narrower, meaning more equipment needs to be moved around in less space. It wouldn’t be safe to maneuver such heavy equipment as riders walked though, they said.
Furthermore, Sarles, said, the foundation supports under the new Schindler escalators at the Dupont Circle entrance have to be entirely rebuilt.
The project will put more pressure on the other entrance, though, meaning that some 22,700 riders who pass through each day will have to squeeze through one entrance.
“I just hope that all of Q Street is going to be running so we don’t have to walk down and worry about falling,” said Shannon Redd, 26, who has had to hike down the steep stalled escalators more times than she can count on her way home from her job.
