Silver Spring Residents React to Transit Center Report

Indefinite delays in the opening of the $112 million Silver Spring Transit Center were met with differing opinions by readers of The Washington Post who wrote into the editors of the newspaper. 

James Mallos of Silver Spring wrote a letter to the editor titled "Dump the Silver Spring Transit Center," that he was glad the Transit Center is delayed. He worte: 

Silver Spring has been looking more like a city lately, even a little glamorous in a twilight rush hour. Part of the reason is the integration of bus riders with the fabric of the city. For five beautiful years, bus riders have been dropped off closer to Silver Spring’s business center, and they have been waiting for buses in front of businesses and restaurants, just as they would in New York or Chicago.

Ellen Sittenfeld Battistelli of Silver Spring wrote in with a couple of suggestions:

The Silver Spring community is discouraged and massively inconvenienced by the nightmare that is the transit center.

Contractor Foulger-Pratt understandably removed its sign from the site. I recommend that the “Paul S. Sarbanes Transit Center” marker also be taken down. This fine U.S. senator deserves better recognition than to be linked to such an albatross.

A Post reader from Palmyra, VA, Laurence M. Hutner Jr., who identified himself as a retired architect said the problems "could have been easily prevented."

From your account, it is impossible to determine who is not responsible for the Silver Spring transit center construction fiasco.

A 100-page inspection report by an outside engineering firm, available online, was made public Tuesday, detailing a slew of problems with the $112 million public transit facility. KCE Engineering found improperly poured concrete, poorly constructed columns and the absence of cabling to hold concrete pour strips together, ultimately calling the transit center unusable and unsafe without major repairs. 

Fixes to the facility will move forward, with no timeline for completion and indefinite delays to the opening, county officials said.

Read more about the Silver Spring Transit Center.