A stretch of Metro’s Red Line, running through downtown D.C., will close for two weeks in December for critical repairs and upgrades, the transit agency said Tuesday.
Red Line service will not run through Farragut North, Metro Center and Gallery Place from Dec. 18 through Dec. 30, cutting off a key section of Metro’s oldest and busiest line.
Metro said free shuttle buses will be running to get passengers through the area. In addition, while Red Line service will be shut down, Blue Orange and Silver Line service will continue to run on the lower level of Metro Center and Green and Yellow Line service will continue to run on the lower level of the Gallery Place station.
Also as part of the work, Judiciary Square station will be closed from Dec. 22 through Dec. 24.
Metro said it will be making “critical” safety repairs to the tunnels and tracks, including shoring up structural issues in tunnels that are nearly 50 years old and date back to the original stations. Metro said crews will be need to repair a concrete overhead beam and pour 1,000 square feet of concrete as part of the work.
Metro will also be installing 40,000 feet of fiber-optic cables and installing new platform-edge lighting as part of the work.
Metro said the project was timed to coincide with the holidays when ridership is historically 40% lower than a normal week.
“We are proud of the important system improvements our team completed over the summer and are prepared to continue these upgrades on the Red Line during the holiday season,” said Metro Chief of Infrastructure Andy Off in a statement. “Thanks to our customers for their understanding of these service outages this year. Completing these critical repairs will improve the reliability of our system for years to come.”
Metro said it is working with D.C. on additional steps to take that could ease downtown traffic for shuttle buses. More additional on getting around the Red Line closure will be provided next month.
