Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project Pictures 02 04 2017
Things continue along at a fast pace, even faster in areas then what I would have expected at this point.
Right of way barrier construction along the Dulles Access Road is closing in on the construction access points. Jersey barriers are being installed at point between the Toll Road and Access Road where the Access Road is being realigned.
Reston Town Center has it platform slab in place. All of the cast in place concrete work to support the mezzanine is done. Precast mezzanine parapets have begun to be installed. Columns for the north entrance pedestrian bridge have begun to come up out of the ground. Escalator and elevator pits for the north entrance pavilion are mostly complete. Site clearing for the south entrance has yet to begin. Preparation are mostly complete for the pouring of the slabs at traction power substation 12 along Sunset Hill Road at the west end of the station.
Ground work for the third rail conduits at both ends on the maintenance track siding interlockings east of Herndon has been mostly complete. You can now clearly see where the maintenance track siding will be. The contractor doing the right of way barriers on both sides of the Herndon station is using two concrete slip form machines.
Herndon has the mezzanine canopy structural frame mostly complete. A hand full of pieces of steel at the west end remain to be set. The last piece of steel will be set after the tower crane is removed. All of the poured in place concrete work for the south entrance pavilion is done. Work on the column for the north entrance has begun.
Traction power substation 13 is done. All that remains to be done is the setting of the precast walls that will enclose the substation.
At traction power substation 14 east of the Innovation Center Station along Sunrise Valley Drive, the base above the ground work has yet to be brought up to elevation of the slab.
At Innovation Center the corrugated sheet medal on the mezzanine canopy appears to have had some issues as some of the panels that were in place in January are no longer there. All of the column for the south entrance pedestrian bridge are done. Foundations for the precast at the entrance pavilion have been poured. Curb and gutter work for the south entrance bus terminal has been done south of the the south entrance pavilion. Columns for the north entrance pedestrian bridges are a various stages of completion. Ground work and grading remains to be done at the north entrance.
The laying of track has begun from a point west of Innovation Center to Rudder Road at Dulles Airport on outbound track N2. The track work contractor has left a gap from the west end of the bridge over Horsepin Run to east of the interlocking west of Sulley Road. Turnout ties, parts for the turnouts and the double crossover diamond frogs have been delivered to the site of the interlocking. The preliminary engineering drawing showed a pair of crossovers in this interlocking. The layout of the third rail conduits and the presents of the diamond frogs is an obvious indication that a double crossover will be installed there. The adjacent traction power substation 15] is awaiting the the setting of the precast walls that will enclose the substation.
All of the girders from the east abutment to the east end of the Dulles Airport station have been set. Deck pouring operations are going east to west from the abutment and has begun.
Structural work to enclose the pedestrian tunnel at the Dulles Airport station entrance is well under way. A heavy duty steel girder has been installed above the opening of the pedestrian tunnel on the garage side of the station entrance. The girder is on the same line of the of the north side of the open cut wall of the mezzanine. There will be mezzanine level ancillary areas behind that wall. Three of the four mezzanine to platform elevator shaft frames are in place, the fourth one is roughly one quarter done. A frame to support the east bank of the mezzanine to platform escalators has been set, a similar frame for the upper west bank has also been set. Girder for five of the of the track bed spans remain to be set at the east end of the station, two spans on track N1 and three on track N2. Girder for the remaining two platform spans at the east end of the station remain to be set. Precast platform slabs have been set on all but one of the girders. Track bed deck slabs have been completed on the elevated west of the station along with the setting of the parapets.
Welded rail has been staged on the elevated along Airfreight Lane. I think we can safely assume track has been laid on the elevated along Autopilot Drive as most of the track fastener staged under the elevated are gone. Ground work for traction power tiebreaker station
#7 under the elevated adjacent to the entrance of Avis Rent A Car return is mostly complete. Ground work at traction power substation 17 north of Autopilot Drive and Windshear Road is also mostly complete.
On the Dulles Greenway where the mainline flies over the eastbound lanes the straddle bents are done. The forms for the barring points on straddle bent 6 have been poured, forms for the barring points on straddle bent 5 appear to have not been poured. Girders have been set on the span east of the west abutment, the two other, west of the straddle bent spans have not been set. Deck slab is being poured on the west yard lead fly over of the eastbound Dulles Greenway. Rebar has been placed for the retaining walls west of the mainline west abutment. The first segment of the retaining walls west of the west yard lead abutment has been completed. Expect a roller coaster ride from where the mainline flies over the Dulles Greenway to just south of Old Ox Road as the west Yard lead junction will be on a grade several feet above the elevation of the road surface. Roughly one third of the length of the retaining wall in the area has been completed. The vertical realignment of the mainline will descend west after flying over the eastbound Dulles Greenway, pass under the west yard lead then ascend to a vertical curve east of the west yard lead junction then descend to pass under Old Ox Road. I believe the reason for doing this was the place the west yard lead junction as close to traction power substation 18] and keep the yard lead grades to a minimum.
The frame of the shop building in Dulles Yard is mostly complete. Slabs have been poured on the the upper floors and roof. Much of the ground work for the third rail conduits has been done. Trackwork has begun on parts of the storage yard ladder and the leads between the storage yard and shop building. Because of the low viewing angle it is not easy to determine the progress on all of the facilities being built in the yard.
Grading for the new alignment of the eastbound lanes of Old Ox Road adjacent to the storage tracks in Dulles yard has begun. The contractor has established a staging area up stream of the existing crossing of Old Ox Road over Horsepen Run in preparation for the shifting of the lanes from the existing alignment to the new west bound bridge to allow the construction of the eastbound bridge.
The barrier walls along the full length of the Loudoun Gateway station are done along with the invert slab under the platform. Roughly one fifth of the precast platform slabs have been set. Ground is being cleared on the south side at eastbound exit 8A of the Dulles Greenway for traction power tiebreaker station 11]adjacent to the interlocking west of the Loudoun Gateway station.
Ground work at traction power substation 19 is mostly done. Trenching of the 35 KV AC power buss is under way between Loudoun Gateway and Ashburn.
Out in Ashburn things are progressing more evenly. The barrier walls at the mezzanine end of the station have begun to come up out of the ground. At the same time the foundations for both the north and south entrance pavilion are being built along with one of the columns for the south entrance pedestrian bridge. The bus roadway that runs parallel to the Dulles Greenway for the south entrance has had the first lifts of asphalt laid alone with the curbs and gutters on the Dulles Greenway side.
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Pictures at plus.google.com
04 02 2017
This and previous posts in this series can be seen at
cambronj.blogspot.com.