The East Falls Church and West Falls Church Metro stations have reopened after being closed for weeks to replace 40-year-old steel rail lines.
The Metrorail station openings along the Orange Line and part of the Silver Line will mean that fewer shuttle buses are needed.
“Our team has made great progress on this work so far. As of last week, our team has replaced 15.5 miles of track, installed nearly 36 miles of fiber-optic cable, replaced two diamond interlockings, and installed 13 new switch machines,” said Metro Chief of Infrastructure Andy Off, in a news release.
The work involved bringing in 1,800 tons of rail, with each piece stretching the length of a Metrorail platform, and replacing the old rail with those new pieces, section by section.
In addition to the rail work, Metro said, “crews removed more than 42,000 linear feet of trees, bushes, grasses, and invasive vines that if not addressed risk causing drainage issues or may lead to damage in severe weather.”
The Vienna and Dunn Loring stations will remain closed through July 16, as part of the second phase of the project. Rails will continue to be replaced, and fiber-optic cables installed between the Vienna and West Falls Church stations.
There continues to be free shuttle service between the Vienna, Dunn Loring, and West Falls Church stations every 10 to 20 minutes. The Orange Line Express service between Vienna and West Falls Church is running every eight to 15 minutes.
Metro also have bus options available at the those stations.
Featured photo courtesy WMATA
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