Unsuck DC Metro: Dupont Project Hits Snag

Red Line · 680 weeks ago

Q st. entrance is harder to find because it's a large hole in the ground and you probably wouldn't know it was there if you hadn't walked past the side with the escalators. It's on the north end of the block that has Sweetgreen and BGR.

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paulistano · 680 weeks ago

Dupont's escalator replacement (and the subsequent closing of the station when the escalators to the other entrance broke) was one of the final nails in the coffin for me to buy a car and just drive. Even with traffic, I still got to work about 45 minutes earlier than if I had taken the "Express" bus and Metro.

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skc · 680 weeks ago

The sad part is it probably would be cheaper to remove the canopy and put it back in place when the project is near completion than to build this special crane.

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@VeggieTart · 680 weeks ago

So what is Metro's (ir)rationale for not letting the contractors remove the canopy? Can it not easily be put back in place once the work is done? Is it not cheaper and quicker to remove the canopy, put it in a safe place, allow the cranes to remove the trusses, do whatever work needs to be done, and then replace the canopy when it's safe to do so?

Oh, shit, I'm making sense again.

1 reply · active 680 weeks ago

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Moonwolf 58p · 680 weeks ago

Isn't that a Capitol Crime? :)

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zorsulak 105p · 680 weeks ago

This will end up way over schedule and budget. If I was a betting man (and from time to time I am), I'd say that by the middle of 2013 they just decide to fill the hole with dirt, plant some trees, and forget there ever was a Dupont South.

2 replies · active 680 weeks ago

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VeteranRider · 680 weeks ago

Don't forget the 17.5 months it will take Metro to decide on what type of trees to plant.

Excuse - I meant: the 17.5 months it will take Metro to hire a contractor who will assist in the process of deciding what type trees to plant.

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VeteranRider · 680 weeks ago

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Arnaud · 680 weeks ago

And they didn't plan that the canopy could be a problem?!?! Was there any discussion between Metro and the contractors prior to the south entrance closure?!?!
I'm speechless... The Metro incompetence is ABYSMAL!

1 reply · active 680 weeks ago

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@VeggieTart · 680 weeks ago

This is Metro. You expect them to PLAN things? Don't be silly; it's the passengers who are supposed to plan for all the delays.

John · 680 weeks ago

What a complete and utter JOKE! They didn't realize this somewhere in the bidding process? Seriously?

Fucking incompetence, everywhere.

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F'n JD · 680 weeks ago

Can we please get a federal takeover?

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@ChrisHowdy · 680 weeks ago

Taken since last, what, June? to build a concrete staircase at Vienna...and it's still not done. Three huge escalators in 8.5 months? Color me skeptical.

Not that it matters. If Foggy Bottom is any indication, they'll be out of commission constantly inside the first week they're open.

3 replies · active 680 weeks ago

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anon · 680 weeks ago

you're an idiot the foggy bottom escalators are running fine

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@ChrisHowdy · 680 weeks ago

My mistake. Didn't occur to me to assume that multiple tweets weekly from riders and photos of folks queued up down the block to enter the station are all fabrication.

unsuckdcmetro 92p · 680 weeks ago

Just fine!

John · 680 weeks ago

Mr. Unsuck: A bit unrelated, but have you heard anything about what caused that massive Red Line failure last night? It was rather ridiculous, was on the platform for almost an hour with no updates from wmata.

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bll · 680 weeks ago

Has anyone noticed that the southside platform escalators are still on, despite the fact that the southside exit is closed? Just another slap in the face to customers about to endure a fare hike because Metro cannot effectively manage its money and resources.

3 replies · active 680 weeks ago

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Kara · 680 weeks ago

Yes, I have noticed that. Including the escalators going up. Of course, with several metro workers always standing around up there. I am wondering if they just want to run up the electric bill or needless increase wear and tear.

How much you want to bet that metro rationalized it would be cheeper to have those workers up there to tell people to go back down than to, oh, turn them off and put up barricades?

Anon202 · 680 weeks ago

Maybe they're afraid that if they turn them off, when it's time to turn them back on in 8.5 months (or however many it really will be) they won't turn back on.

bll · 680 weeks ago

I wouldn't be surprised if they kept them running so they could say they were working to increase the number of functioning escalators, system wide.

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K-anon · 680 weeks ago

I've decreased my metro usage to 1 day a week (from previously 5). I'm sick of the incompetence. I hear so many other stories of people cutting back their usage, especially with the impending fare hikes. Metro is doomed! (and I, for one, won't shed a tear for them)

@Hell_on_wheelz · 680 weeks ago

I seriously suggest that the able-bodied do what the para-community did in '06. Descend en-masse on Board meetings: organized with well thought-out and well-articulated demands with the media (but not Metro) fore-warned to your activities. The Board has public comment sign ups where each person is allotted 3 minutes. Each person can give their 3 minute part of a larger message. Rinse, lather, repeat - every month.

Keep making noise until you get movement on your issues and then do NOT let up.

2 replies · active 680 weeks ago

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John · 680 weeks ago

can you post some links for these meetings, ie when they are coming up, etc?

@Hell_on_wheelz · 680 weeks ago

http://www.wmata.com/about_metro/calendar/index.c...

Next Board meeting is March 22 then April 26.
Finance and Administration Committee/Safety and Security Committee/ Customer Service and Operations Committee next meeting is April 12.

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Anon202 · 680 weeks ago

Prediction: Next year, when this exact same issue occurs in the course of rebuilding the escalators at some other station, we will learn the Metro did not purchase this newly-invented special canopy-evading crane from the Dupont contractor, and will have to pay the next contractor to re-invent it.
(Repeat for as many stations exits with canopies.)

Metro Guy · 680 weeks ago

The contract at Dupont was bid with a non canopy removal stipulation. Contractors apparently knew what they were getting into.

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anon · 680 weeks ago

There has been alot more then the panels removed so get your facts right before you post something.

All you people that post shit on this site lack common sense.

7 replies · active 680 weeks ago

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Green Line Rider · 680 weeks ago

Well, then tell us what more has been done. You can't sit here and question unsuck's journalism when information isn't being presented in any other outlet.

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anon · 680 weeks ago

All the steps and half the step chain on #2 and half the steps out of #3 and all the skirts out of 2 & 3.
The plan the whole time was to leave the canopy and use a large gantry at the top and smaller gantries on the incline.
If you had any knowledge at all you would understand.

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DC Denizen · 680 weeks ago

Agreed with GLR. We're always grateful to hear information from people in a position to know. If you have more, consider posting here or e-mailing directly to Unsuck. Is anything going on during the time frame while this special crane is being built? Are they working in areas we can't see? Any estimate on when they will have this new crane ready to go?

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Stan Dessel · 680 weeks ago

I have personally toured the area, and all 20 Metro workers stationed there around the clock are hard at work playing sudoku.

Some of them are even getting pretty good at it.

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anon · 680 weeks ago

IDIOT

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Radner · 680 weeks ago

It looks like what you're trying to do is vent your frustration by calling the posters dumb. I understand that it must be frustrating to see all these people negatively commenting on things that you work hard trying to repair - for them. They're not trying to insult you personally. They're trying to let you know that your organization has failed you by not giving you the training and environment to ever see your hard work come to fruition.

And, because escalators throughout the system fail on a reliable basis, it is fair to say that you are bad at your job and in desperate need of more training. But no one is saying that. Everyone here is frustrated because a basic service that they pay for isn't being provided. If you can't see that, then you are the idiot.

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SammyDC · 680 weeks ago

I think "anon" is Stessel trying to be anonymous.

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Kara · 680 weeks ago

Umm? Did anyone at metro ever take an engineering class? I will not even ask about physics, civil engineering will do. Anyway, if it will take a normal crane operating at, oh, maybe 15 degrees off vertical to get the lifting power you need what do they think the results will be when you need to work around the constraint of how high that canopy is?

The only realistic alternative (unless you are going to pay for a large one-use-only device) would be several smaller cranes on each side. Even then it would not be a fun lift.

Having that canopy in place is an idiotic requirement. Okay, they paid a lot of money, but I am betting a lot of that was design and fabrication. Once you detach the bolts from the concrete it would be a single lift.

9 replies · active 679 weeks ago

@VeggieTart · 680 weeks ago

And the contractor didn't think to suggest that Metro's cockamamie requirement would make the job a lot more difficult? There has to be a way to remove the canopy without damaging it.

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anon poser · 680 weeks ago

Is that how 'cockamamie' is spelled? Idiot

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anon · 680 weeks ago

you're an idiot also, you can not lift the canopy without removing the glass.

NO COMMON SENSE

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red liner · 680 weeks ago

Anon, how about you actually present some facts instead of just being combative and calling everyone idiots?
If the facts that are presented here are not accurate, then by all means, correct them, but just calling someone an idiot is typical metro tactics of diverting away from the issue at hand.
So, if they can't lift the canopy without removing the glass, how about they, I don't know, remove the glass and then unbolt and lift the canopy?
And don't tell me that its impossible to remove the glass; what if one cracked and needed replacement, or did you and your metro cronies not plan for that?

jmf · 680 weeks ago

Hey now, I've won plenty of arguments by calling people idiots! My 6-year-old nephew has NO good comebacks to that one!!!

And anon -- if you're going to run around calling everyone idiots, I'd advise you to first check your spelling and grammar. Doesn't help you insist you're smarter than everyone when you write "can not" as two words and misuse a comma.
MAYBE YOUR THE IDIOT.

(that was intentional and hurt my brain to type)

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anon poser · 680 weeks ago

how can that hurt you're brain when you don't have one?

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anon · 680 weeks ago

sorry don.t type for a living like you.

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red liner · 680 weeks ago

@VeggieTart · 679 weeks ago

Comma splice. And are you allergic to the Shift key?

So you think making them build special cranes to get the escalators out is better than, oh, I don't know, removing the glass panels and then taking down the hardware?

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not ELES · 680 weeks ago

That whole Dupont thing is a mess.

Why do they have so many people stationed there all the time?

Why did they build so much stuff?

We have to be up to the millions already, and the work has barely started.

"ANON" I was over there a few days ago, and hardly anything had been done.

3 replies · active 680 weeks ago

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anon · 680 weeks ago

Because you don't know what you are looking at.

not ELES · 680 weeks ago

I know when I'm looking at a moneysuck.

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anon poser · 680 weeks ago

they bilt so much stuff so that we could get paid for in overtime

NO COMMON SENSE

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anon · 680 weeks ago

You all can check thumbs down and put your comments in but I can tell most of you sit at a desk and push a pencil all day.

1 reply · active 680 weeks ago

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VeteranRider · 680 weeks ago

Anon: I think you are right - a lot of us don't know very much about the details of escalator design & repair. This is your opportunity to teach us. However, as many have mentioned, starting out by calling us idiots isn't going to help you teach us what we need to know. Yes I push a pencil all day (or, type at a computer) but that's what pays me my living - the money that I pour into Metro via fares and taxes and have done so as an almost-daily rider since service began in 1976. I care about Metro, and I am paying for Metro, so please help us understand what they are doing right at Dupont, and what they are not.

insider · 680 weeks ago

Don't believe "anon." the project is fubar'ed already.

they've done a few housecleaning items, but the heavy lifting is hung up on the canopy.