Aging escalators at the Dupont Circle and Foggy Bottom Metro stops are on track to be replaced as part of the $177 million Red Line rehabilitation project, which has left some riders praising the long-sought replacements and others questioning the timing.

The project is moving forward just weeks after the deadly June 22 crash that killed nine and injured more than 70. But Metro has called those two escalators among the “least reliable” of its 588 escalators. The agency has been repairing and rehabilitating them constantly, plagued with aging equipment made by manufacturers no longer in business. Replacing the escalators could create a long-term solution.