BETHESDA, Md. (7News) — Metro gave 7News a behind-the-scenes tour on Friday, showing us some of the work that has been done while riders have been unable to use a portion of the Red Line in Montgomery County.The Bethesda, Medical Center, and Grosvenor-Strathmore stations have been closed since July 6 and are scheduled to reopen this coming Monday, Sept. 7, which is Labor Day.During the shutdown, crews have been building a second mezzanine (an area one level up from the tracks that includes faregates) at the Bethesd...
BETHESDA, Md. (7News) — Metro gave 7News a behind-the-scenes tour on Friday, showing us some of the work that has been done while riders have been unable to use a portion of the Red Line in Montgomery County.
The Bethesda, Medical Center, and Grosvenor-Strathmore stations have been closed since July 6 and are scheduled to reopen this coming Monday, Sept. 7, which is Labor Day.
During the shutdown, crews have been building a second mezzanine (an area one level up from the tracks that includes faregates) at the Bethesda station. Although the new mezzanine will connect to a new entrance to the Bethesda station, its primary purpose will be to provide a link to a future Bethesda station on the Maryland Purple Line light rail system, which is currently predicted to open in late 2027.
Friday afternoon, Metro showed us the progress they have made on the new mezzanine, which didn't exist when the summer began. Although it is still under construction, when the Bethesda station reopens Monday, riders will clearly see it above one end of the platform.
New stairs, escalators, and elevators are all being built to take riders from the Bethesda platform up to the new mezzanine. From there, in the future, riders will be able to exit through faregates and walk to an area that will contain six high-speed elevators that will take them up to where they can access both a future Bethesda Purple Line station and downtown Bethesda near Wisconsin Avenue and Elm Street.
Although the last two months have been painful for riders forced onto shuttle buses, Metro said it was better to "rip the Band-Aid off" and get work done quickly than to do the work on nights and weekends and inconvenience riders for a much longer period of time.
“I think the biggest benefit is just time and money [savings]," said Metro Project Manager Jeanne Acquadro.
In addition to the Purple Line-related work at Bethesda, crews also did major rehabilitation work on the aging platform at Grosvenor-Strathmore, and they also added lighting and improved drainage there.
“We had work at Grosvenor we knew needed to get done, so we were able to add Grosvenor to the mix, and we got all of that work done, which also would have taken a very long time," Acquadro said. "We also were able to get out track people, our power people, our facilities people in here to do maintenance and repairs throughout.”
Workers also did work to maintain a raised railway that runs above portions of Rockville Pike between Medical Center and Grosvenor.