Silver Spring Transit Center Could Open Next Summer

It could be July or later by the time the Silver Spring Transit Center opens.

That’s what General Services Department Director David Dise told the Montgomery County Council on Tuesday.

Work to fix the structural flaws (which include cracks and thin concrete sections) in the Silver Spring Transit Center—a future hub for Metrorail, Metrobus, MARC trains and the proposed Purple Line, in downtown Silver Spring at Colesville Road and Wayne Avenue—already has begun, with repairs of cracks underway, Dise said.

Later this month or in December, a dye test will be used to determine leak sources, Dise added.

But pouring the latex-modified concrete (LMC) overlay on the transit center’s surfaces to strengthen the structure will have to wait until late March or April, as five to six weeks of temperatures above 40 degrees are needed to pour the LMC and let it set properly, Dise said.

Pouring the overlay should be completed in May, and then the building can be certified.

After that, Metro has 30 days to inspect and certify the structure to its own standards, according to a memorandum of understanding.

The transit center was supposed to open in 2011, but the opening was delayed indefinitely after inspectors found cracks and disparities in concrete thicknesses throughout the structure, The Gazette reported.

Latex-modified concrete—rather than a polymer overlay—was recommended by project engineer Parsons Brinckerhoff as the material to use to fix the flawed structure, Dise told the county council last spring. Both the county’s department of general services and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority agreed that LMC was the best material to fix the $120-million structure, Patch reported last spring.

Councilmembers expressed concern on Tuesday that information about the status of the transit center project has been disseminated too slowly, leaving community members in the dark.

“I can’t leave my house without someone stopping me and asking me about the transit center,” Council Member Valerie Ervin (D-District 5) said.

Did you vote in the Action Committee for Transit's contest on when the transit center will open? The entry form and complete contest rules are on ACT's website. The prize is dinner for two at Silver Spring's 8407 kitchen bar, but the prize won't be awarded until the transit center is open, Patch reported in September.