WMATA Silver Line Phase I to open 26 July (was: Delayed Indefinitely)

RESTON, Va. (WUSA9) -- The opening of the new Silver Line has been indefinitely delayed because of serious problems with the train communication system and other issues.

"This has turned into a soap opera," said Former Congressman Tom Davis who chairs MWAA's Dulles Corridor Committee. He says the fault belongs with the contractor, Dulles Transit Partners.

Pat Nowakawski, the Silver Line Project Director is dealing with a major set back on the phase one of the rail line. The communications system that allows trains on the new line to communicate with the Metro Control Center does not work correctly and will have to be replaced.

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Among the problems that must be fixed before the first phase of Metro’s new $5.6 billion Silver Line is completed: Hundreds of speakers at the five stations will have to be torn out and replaced because they don’t meet fire code. And cable that allows radio communication inside a tunnel in Tysons Corner will have to be replaced because it also does not meet code requirements.

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Nowakowski said that the station speakers, for example, were approved for installation as part of the project’s design review process and that similar equipment is used in the current Metro system. But state inspectors said they could not approve them for use because they do not meet code requirements.

He also said he will ask the board next month to approve a contract for the system that feeds train information — including location — to Metro’s control center, because efforts to make the current equipment work have failed. According to Metro officials, the replacement of the equipment would not further delay the start of passenger service, because the line could be operated for a short time without it in place.

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MattW said:

I don't see the option for Desert Wind, Pioneer, and Sunset East being restored!

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jis said:

MattW said:

I don't see the option for Desert Wind, Pioneer, and Sunset East being restored!

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And the Tunnel. What about the Tunnel? Just throwing it in before Andrew pipes up :giggle: :hi:

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Tracktwentynine said:

When will the Silver Line (Phase I) open?

In the year 2525,

if man is still alive;

If woman can survive;

They may find...

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One problem cited by Nowakowski illustrates how a multi-billion dollar project of heavy infrastructure can get snagged on a small ticket, but nonetheless important, item.

Every speaker installed in each of the five stations in Tysons Corner and Reston have to be ripped out, replaced, and tested again. The problem is not that the speakers fail to work; they are in use in the current Metro system. But the speakers are not up to the current code, an oversight by the contractors that was recently caught by state inspectors.

“They were installed and all worked, but we are now changing each and every last one of them. It was a code issue,” Nowakowski said. “You have to go out and buy all those things, there is a lead time involved, you have to change the design to do that because they are not exactly the same speakers. So we are working as quickly as we can on issues like that.”

In an interview with WAMU 88.5, Rich Sliwoski, the director of the Virginia Department of General Services, said when the speakers were installed they met the standards established in the original train station design plans for code year 2002. But six months ago either MWAA or the contractor — which one remained unclear on Wednesday — decided to make a change in the design.

The speakers, first installed to work in the public address system only, were added to an advanced fire alarm system that required a more recent code standard than 2002. A contractor is generally responsible for making sure design changes comply with building codes, Sliwoski said. The state will not issue a certificate of occupancy for the train stations until all building codes are satisfied.

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After months of fruitless repairs, wayside computer units will be replaced entirely. The remote terminal units (RTUs) installed by subcontractor Alstom Signaling have failed too often under testing, although Nowakowski had believed the issue could be resolved. But on Wednesday he announced MWAA would issue a new contract for the system’s replacement.

The RTUs communicate between the Automated Train Control system that keeps trains properly spaced and Metro’s headquarters. When the safety system hits a fail-safe and stops trains in their tracks the RTUs are supposed to automatically reboot, but the RTUs have had to be manually rebooted, a glitch that disrupts the smooth operation of trains.

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The Davy Crockett said:

I'd of voted for the streetcars in DC... EXCEPT this is DC that we are talking about - with its matter with its Gray matter - as in Vincent.

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With Phase I of the Silver Line Metrorail project through Tysons Corner running six months (and counting) behind schedule, Northern Virginia commuters and Tysons real estate developers are wondering how the delays came about — especially when considering that the lead contractor is one of the giants in the field of construction and engineering, and several layers of oversight were put in place to prevent the very problems holding up completion.

Lots of oversight, no assignment of blame

The public agency overseeing the Silver Line’s construction, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA), has a team of at least a dozen staff assigned at the project office in Herndon. MWAA hired a construction and maintenance management firm, Washington-based Jacobs Engineering, to lead its oversight efforts. Jacobs has approximately 100 employees working on all aspects of the project. Additionally, officials from Virginia's Department of Transportation and the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation are assigned to the Silver Line’s Herndon headquarters, and the Federal Transit Administration also has an oversight role.
Yet when the contractor team led by Bechtel submitted the project for approval in late February, it was rejected with pages and pages of items that needed to be fixed, including missing certificates of occupancy for the five new rail stations in Tysons and Reston. That error by the contractors seemed mystifying, considering the stations cannot open to a single commuter unless inspectors at the Virginia Department of General Services sign off on the certificates.
“Right now we’re not focused on blame. We are focused on getting the job done,” said Tom Davis, the former Virginia congressman and current MWAA board member who was appointed to the board by then-Governor McDonnell to lead the Silver Line to completion.
“The reason you still have problems after all of this oversight is you still have to go through the inspectors. Inspectors can be a pretty ornery lot sometimes and they are sticklers, and from our point of view, we are not going to accept anything the inspectors haven’t approved,” Davis said in an interview with WAMU 88.5 FM.
Days after making their most revealing remarks to date about the specific issues holding up the Silver Line’s “substantial completion,” a milestone that was supposed to be attained in September, officials at MWAA on Monday said there is still no timetable for the end of the remedial work.
Bechtel again declined to make a company representative assigned to the Silver Line available for an interview, although a spokeswoman offered a brief statement.
“We are working together to successfully complete the project,” said Bechtel’s Michelle Michael.

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Phase I of the Silver Line Metrorail project through Tysons Corner is running six months (and counting) behind schedule. Northern Virginia commuters and Tysons real estate developers have reason to ask how these delays came about, especially when considering the following: the lead contractor is one of the giants in the field of construction and engineering, and several layers of oversight were put in place to prevent the very problems holding up completion.

Lots of oversight, no assignment of blame
The public agency overseeing the Silver Line’s construction, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA), has a team of at least a dozen staff assigned at the project office in Herndon. MWAA hired a construction and maintenance management firm, Washington-based Jacobs Engineering, to lead its oversight efforts. Jacobs has approximately 100 employees working on all aspects of the project. Additionally, officials from VDOT and the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation are assigned to the Silver Line’s Herndon headquarters, and the Federal Transit Administration also has an oversight role.

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WASHINGTON -- The Silver Line could be up and running by July 4 after significant progress throughout the last few weeks, sources familiar with the project tell WTOP.

The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority continues to run tests on the tracks and the contractor building the Silver Line could get approval to turn the project over to Metro within the next two weeks.

Multiple sources tell WTOP that it's more likely that the Silver Line will be completed and certified before the end of the month than it being delayed into May. Once MWAA certifies the project as complete, it would turn over the project to Metro. Project Director Pat Nowakowski has told WTOP the time between certification and turnover to Metro would be quick.

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Bechtel announced today that Dulles Transit Partners, the Bechtel-led team building Phase 1 of the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, has made significant progress on all major work and plans to submit the project to MWAA for substantial completion designation soon,” the contractor said in a statement released late Tuesday afternoon.

Earlier Tuesday, MWAA board member Tom Davis, who was appointed to the board by former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell to see the Silver Line to completion, says that he expected a submission of “substantial completion” in the next few days prior to MWAA's next scheduled board of directors meeting on April 16.

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The Davy Crockett said:

My money is that SPUD will happen first.

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Metro’s Silver Line has not yet opened, but the Washington Metropolitan Airports Authority (MWAA) is already seeking a $1.8 million technology upgrade of the Automatic Train Control system. [emphasis added]

MWAA is building the Silver Line rail extension. The 11-mile, $2.8 billion Phase 1 of the Silver Line will run from East Falls Church to Reston’s Wiehle Avenue. When it is satisfactorily completed — a decision that could come in the next two weeks — the project will be turned over to Metro, which will then conduct its own testing before setting an opening date.

The Dulles Corridor Committee of the MWAA Board of Directors on Wednesday approved awarding a sole source contract to Alstom Signaling, Inc., of Henrietta, N.Y. for an Automatic Train Control (ATC) technology upgrade.

Alstom previously installed the Horton Remote Terminal Units (RTUs) as part of the design of the Automatic Train Control System. That system is used throughout the existing Metro system, MWAA says.

But in testing the system for the Silver Line,t he RTUs have proven faulty.

“The Horton RTUs have proven unreliable in the Phase 1 application,” MWAA documents read. “Increased reliability can be achieved by incorporating the use of integral circuit boards in the Alstom Vital Processor Interlock (VPI) instead of using RTU equipment.”

“This is a reliability issue, not a safety issue,” the documents read. “The technology upgrade will take one year to complete.”

MWAA says that it will advise Dulles Transit Partners, the Bechtel unit that constructed the rail line, to make adjustments to improve reliability. It also says that once service begins, WMATA (Metro) will provide “extra staffing at the Project’s expense to ensure reliability” and that Alstom is the only contractor able to provide the necessary equipment for the upgrades.

MWA officials said early Wednesday that roughly $23 million is available in the Silver Line contingency fund.

The ATC system has been a bug in constructing the Silver Line — and it is crucial to get it right. In 2009, the system failed to detect the presence of a train on the tracks leading to a Red Line crash that killed nine people and injured dozens of others.

In June, Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff said he was troubled by unauthorized design changes Alstom made without consulting Metro. In addition, because of a shortage of equipment, Alstom workers allegedly moved some control boards from one monitoring station to another, which meant they were checking the same set of boards rather than new ones, according to The Washington Post.

In November, more issues with the ATC system were found, leading to a delay of several months.

While an official opening date was never announced, Phase 1 was originally estimated to be ready to hand off to Metro last summer for a December 2013 opening. Last spring, that was moved to a November turnover. In November, the project was delayed further while problems with the Automatic Train Control System were addressed.

On Feb. 7, DTP announced it had reached “substantial completion,” meaning it felt the construction was finished. MWAA completed a two-week review and found a host of problems, including some with the ATC system.

DTP says it fixed the problems, and on April 9 — the same day $25,000 a day penalties would kick in as part of the construction contract — submitted the project again. MWAA is in the midst of another 15-day review.

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Pat Nowakowski, executive director of the Dulles Corridor Rail Project, will step down to take a position with another transit agency, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority announced on Wednesday. [emphasis added]

Nowakowski has been the face of the Silver Line project as it proceeded from idea to the brink of opening.

Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority CEO Jack Potter says MWAA will conduct a nationwide search for Nowakowski’s replacement.

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The Davy Crockett said:

HMMMM... Could there be a connection between the Silver Line Phase 1's problems and delays and this last news item? :huh:

Or am I just jumping on The Bandwagon? :blink: :blink:

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After seven months of delays and tens of millions of dollars in cost overruns, there is finally some good news: Passengers could be boarding Metro Silver Line trains this summer.

The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority and Metro announced Thursday that they have reached an agreement that will allow MWAA additional time to complete its work on the $5.6 billion rail line even after the project is turned over to the transit authority.

The agreement means there won’t be the speedy turnover many had hoped for, but it provides a clear outline for what needs to be done to get the new rail line running.

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Troup said there are 13 pre-operation readiness (ORD) categories, and those categories have 33 subsets of fixes. Among those deemed fixed are station leaks (including some at Wiehle-Reston East) and a loss of speed readout issue. Faulty wiring in the station speakers is on its way to being fixed, as is an issue with the Horton Remote Terminal Units (RTUs), which help run the crucial Automatic Train Control software, said Troup.

The RTU issueis not a vital safety issue, said Troup. It is a reliability issue.

Troup said Metro wants 98 percent RTU reliability. After Metro accepts operational readiness, there will be a complete changeout of the system.

Over the weekend, an issue arose with the bobbing track circuit, said Troup. Bobbing Track Circuits have to do with the junction of the Silver and Orange lines east of the East Falls Church Station. A circuit will go into a false sense of occupancy and the approaching train will go into a braking mode, said Troup.

The April 23 agreement called for adding four blocking capacitors to address the issue. The fixes fared well in testing, but over the weekend one failed, said Troup. He said this is also a reliability issue and not a safety issue, and after operational readiness this will also have a system upgrade.

Additional testing is being performed to see if the failure was a system issue or a component failure. Those test results should be available on Tuesday, Troup said.

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The start of testing May 27 would raise hopes that trains carrying commuters could begin running in late July or early August. Although Metro has 90 days to complete its testing, Sarles has hinted that the transit authority might not need the full three months.

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Speculation on when the rail line will begin carrying passengers has become a parlor game for those who have monitored the Silver Lines progress. With the stations mostly complete and some test trains being run, passersby have been fooled into thinking that the Silver Line is open for business.

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Perhaps chastened by the backlash against earlier missed deadlines, Metro stopped short of announcing an opening date any more specific than the summer season.

Still, the Silver Line has thrown down the gauntlet with a forecast opening time, however vague. Will the streetcar, already more than two months behind Mayor Vince Gray's pledge, pick it up and aim for an earlier date in the increasingly ridiculous race between the two?

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Metro officials took control of the Silver Line on Tuesday, saying they have “a high level of confidence” they’ll be able to complete the necessary testing and training in time for a summer opening.

“Obviously, we’re very pleased,” said Metro Deputy General Manger Rob Troup. “We would not have reached this [point] if we were not confident of being able to do the testing within the time frame.’’

Troup said officials have set an aggressive schedule for ensuring Metro personnel and others are familiar with the ins and outs of the first phase of the $5.6 billion rail line before it begins carrying passengers. Under the transit agency’s agreement with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA), which is overseeing construction of the line, Metro has 90 days to complete all its work. But because some testing and training has already occurred, some officials believe Metro will not need the full three months.

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