The PYMIG held an in-person meeting at the Charles Houston Recreation Center on October 25, 2021, at 7:00 pm.  The meeting’s purposes were to discuss road, sidewalk, and bicycle path infrastructure near the entry pavilions in Potomac Yard and for the builders (Potomac Yard Constructors or PYC) to update the Metrorail Station’s progress and address the future construction schedule.  The agenda, presentation materials, and a 57-minute video of the meeting are available here (Note:  The presentation materials will significantly help you understand the synopsis below; however, the sound quality of the video recording is only fair).

Road, Sidewalk, and Bicycle Infrastructure.  Steve Sindiong from the City’s Transportation & Environmental Services department (TES) presented the improvements TES wants to incorporate into the existing road, sidewalk, and bicycle path infrastructure that provides access to the Metrorail station entry pavilions.  The goal is to prevent conflicts between pedestrians, bicyclists, and road traffic near the North and South entry pavilions in Potomac Yard.  He also discussed how existing transportation nets would connect to the Metrorail station (slides 3-15).

Pile Driving.  PYC drove six test piles along the emergency vehicle/pedestrian path route to provide us access to the Metrorail station.  The purpose was to obtain engineering data PYC requires before driving approximately 200 production piles to support the path.  PYC should begin installing the production piles early in 2022 and has said it will take about six weeks to complete the work.  Once pile driving is completed, there will be an uptick in the number of dump trucks traveling through our neighborhood as PYC installs the fill needed to bring the path up to grade.

Additional Opening Delay of the Metrorail Station Opening.  PYC’s original construction schedule called for the cut-over from the existing Metrorail tracks to the new tracks through the Metrorail station to occur in December 2021 and for the station to open in March 2022.  On July 26, 2021, WMATA notified us of a five-month delay in the Metrorail station opening to September 2022.  Now, WMATA’s construction schedule calls for the track cut-over to occur in September 2022 and for the station to open at the end of Fall, probably late December 2022.  You can find the discussion of the delay at time 48:08-56:37 of the video.

The Current State of Construction.  Slides 16-35 provide photos of the construction progress of the duct banks, Metrorail station headhouse, pedestrian bridges, North pavilion, and South Pavilion.

Future Schedule.  You can find the short-term construction schedule through February 2022 on slide 36.

Update courtesy of Steve Crime, PG’s neighborhood liaison to PYMIG.