Red Line construction on Metro has wrapped up one day ahead of schedule, meaning normal service will resume at 7 a.m. on Saturday.
Originally, the construction that began on Dec. 18 was slated to continue through the day on Saturday.
Metro said in a news release that it was also under budget on the project by $250,000.
There will not be any scheduled track maintenance this New Year’s Eve weekend, according to Metro. Additionally, the trains will be open until 2 a.m. on Monday for New Year’s Eve revelers.
“We appreciate all of our customers, businesses, the District and the effort of our Metro staff who worked through the holidays to get this critical work done,” Metro General Manager and Chief Executive Officer Randy Clarke said in a news release. “Maintaining the safety and reliability of the system is vital. Thanks to Mayor Bowser and the District Department of Transportation, we were able to use special dedicated bus lanes created for this project to minimize the impact to customers.”
Metro said that the construction team used “more than eight tons of concrete and 466 pounds of rebar to rebuild the Red Line tunnel ceiling to prevent concrete from falling onto trains.”
Metro also replaced 3,159 linear feet of running rail between Farragut North and Metro Center, installed 1,152 LED lights for the new platform edge lighting between Farragut North and Judiciary Square, added extra insulation to the third rail power cables between Gallery Place and Judiciary Square, and installed 15,914 linear feet of fiber optic cables between Farragut North and Judiciary Square for its next generation train signaling system.
This Red Line project was part of Metro’s 10-year, $15 billion Capital Improvement Program.
