My girlfriend recently was at Washington DC station. she has been thru this station many times over the last 7 years... So what is being accomplished by all the construction in the station??? Are they trying to put more food areas on the main floor away from the food court or what is their plan???
Washington DC what is the new plan ??
- Thread starter BillVasi
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There are several projects underway for DC Union Station AFAIK. There is a long range multi-stage Master Plan for Union Station that is still being refined and agreed to, so any construction that is going on now is just the current step.
There was the earthquake repair in the front hall, but I think that has been completed or is mostly complete. There is a project to revamp the configuration of and passenger flow around some of the retail spaces to the concourse on the first floor level, which may be what your girlfriend saw.
There is also a plan to restore the waiting area in the main hall by relocating the restaurant in the center of the hall to the now closed movie theater space below the hall. Escalators would be put in in the main hall to access the restaurants and north end of the food court. New flat benches would be placed in the mail hall for people to sit on. But the last I heard the plans for the main hall have been delayed because of objections to the design from one or more of the many agencies and preservation councils, committees that have to give their approval.
the_traveler
Engineer
Correct. Much of the repairs is due to the earthquake damage and other discovered repairs. (Just think how long the Washington Monument was closed to repair the damage. And it had nothing like was WUS has in detail.)
Ryan
Court Jester
The Washington Monument is still closed.
Alexandria Nick
Lead Service Attendant
Technically, it's not closed to repair the damage though. It's been fixed for a while now. That's why the scaffolding came down.
Ryan
Court Jester
The scaffolding coming down does not mean that repairs are complete. Just that they don't need the scaffolding anymore to do the work.
J
Jamie
Guest
I met with the developer who is in charge of the commercial part of Union Station almost two years ago. The insurance people were being very uncooperative- "this crack doesn't look like earthquake damage, it was preexisting, and we won't pay to fix it."
From the look of the main hall, they have not made much progress. You would have thought that they could have at least move the scaffolding to the other side by now.
From the look of the main hall, they have not made much progress. You would have thought that they could have at least move the scaffolding to the other side by now.
The scaffolding for the Washington Monument was for external repairs. As of mid-November news reports, the internal repairs were only 50% and external 80% complete with the scaffolding still in place for the lower part of the momument. The NPS may still be aiming for a spring 2014 re-opening.
That's not uncooperative. That's called refusing to pay for damage not caused by the earthquake, which is what the claim is for. It's like refusing to cover damage to someone's front bumper when their rear bumper and trunk were damaged in a rear-end collision.
If claims were paid willy-nilly with no regard for prior/unrelated damage, your insurance rates would be even higher than what they are now.
Well, arguing with the insurance over what was damage and what was not is to be expected. Checking for more recent news, progress appeared to have been stalled while getting additional funds. The work being done is now not so much earthquake repair, but repair work to the gold gilding which was discovered to be coming off. Washington Post article from November: American Express Foundation grant to fund Union Station earthquake repairs.
With the Master Plan, Burnham Place development, and repair work, DC Union Station is likely to have nearly continuous construction projects underway in one part of the station complex or another for the next 15+ years. The Metro station is currently slated for a $35 million expansion project by WMATA as one of the stations to be upgraded by 2020. The six year plans in the WMATA FY15 proposed budget have the peak spending years in FY18 and FY19 for the Metro station, so those should be the busy years for construction work at the WAS Metro station.
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