Silver Spring Transit Center Fixes Won't Start For Months

David Dise, head of Montgomery County's General Services department, has advised the County Council that remediation of the much-delayed, $120 million Silver Spring Transit Center won't begin any sooner than late this summer.

Dise wrote in an email to County Council President Nancy Navarro Friday that a schedule for when the fixes will be complete and the center will be open hasn't been established. 

Last month, an inspection report by independent firm KCE Engineering found issues with the center's concrete, girders, columns, support beams and, most disturbing for inspectors, an absence of support cabling on one level of the three-tiered facility. Contractors cited in the report have all denied faults in their work, The Washington Post reported. 

Haven't been following along? Read more about the Silver Spring Transit Center here. 

Before renovation can begin, paperwork has to be completed: Parsons Brinkerhoff, the original engineering company that has agreed to stay on for the remediation, will have the next six weeks to create a schedule for the work that's needed, Dise's letter read. 

Once that's done, KCE Engineering, the outside firm that was hired to inspect the troubled structure, will need another two weeks to "thoroughly review and validate" Parsons Brinkerhoff's plans before they are then distributed to Foulger-Pratt, the project's general contractor, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), which will eventually be responsible for the center, and other parties, Dise wrote. 

A flow of red tape will follow, with the remediation plans requiring eventual approval from WMATA and the county's permitting services department before the actual work begins. 

While everyone else is dealing in paperwork, Foulger-Pratt will need to install steel parts, including post-tensioning cables, to concrete pour strips in the middle level of the Transit Center. This oversight, the most dangerous uncovered during KCE's review, has to be corrected before any further remediation work begins, Dise said. 

"I want to emphasize my earlier remarks to Council and assure you that none of the identified defects are beyond repair and remediation," Dise wrote. "The work needing to be done will be accomplished. Once completed, the Transit Center will be placed into full and safe operation with the same life and functionality originally intended."