More problems emerge in D.C. Metro Silver Line construction

MWAA

Concrete pedestals at the planned Dulles Airport Metro station are cracking, according to the Washington Post, the latest in a series of flaws and mishaps on the Silver Line project.The pedestals, which support a glass wall on the first floor and glass windscreens on the second floor, “were built without proper internal reinforcement,” the newspaper said.

The pedestals were designed and installed by Capital Rail Constructors, the joint venture of Bethesda-based Clark Construction Group and Kiewit Infrastructure, that is building the Silver Line.

The newspaper obtained documents through a public-records request that showed the problems were first detected in April of last year, and that in November CRC told Metro the problems were more significant than first believed.

The pedestal are just the latest problems for Phase 2 of the Silver Line project, which calls for construction of six new station and new rail to extend service to Dulles and to eastern Loudoun County.

Late last year problems were detected in hundreds of concrete ties manufactured by manufactured by Rocla Concrete Tie for use in the $5.8 billion project. Rocla was acquired by Vossloh Group in January 2017. According to the Post, no solution has been arrived at yet

Several months earlier CRC announced it had found problems with the concrete panels installed at five of the six stations under construction. Earlier this week the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia has obtained a $700,567 judgment against Andrew Nolan, a former quality control manager for Pennsylvania-based Universal Concrete Products Corp., for falsifying air content test results on those panels.

And back in 2015, CRC halted work after cracks were detected in girders supporting the tracks near Dulles International Airport.