Six Metro stations in downtown D.C. will temporarily close in December to allow the transit agency to repair and upgrade tracks and signals on the Blue, Orange and Silver lines, WMATA announced Tuesday.
Farragut West, McPherson Square and the lower level of Metro Center will shut down starting on Dec. 20.
Beginning on Dec. 27, Federal Triangle, Smithsonian and the lower level of L’Enfant Plaza will also close. All stations will reopen on Dec. 31.
The project will allow Metro to install 15,000 feet of fiber optic cable to improve communication and train control, replace grout pads and fasteners and upgrade platform edge lighting.
Metro said the dates were chosen because ridership tends to be lower toward the end of the year with the holiday season in full swing. The same work would require about four months of weekend single tracking any other time of the year.
Metro closed a downtown segment of the Red Line around the same time last year for a similar construction project.
During the closure, the Blue Line will only run between Foggy Bottom and Franconia-Springfield every 12 minutes. The Orange and Silver lines will be split in two with the western legs running every 12 minutes from Vienna to Clarendon and Ashburn to Foggy Bottom, respectively. The eastern branches will start running every 16 minutes from Federal Triangle during the first phase of the shutdown.
Starting on Dec. 27, those lines will run every 8 minutes from Federal Center SW.
Metro plans to run free shuttle buses between the stations during the closure, and will provide more information on that service in the coming weeks.
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