December 12, 2006
You Must Be This Tall To Ride
Metro spent two years refurbishing the Friendship Heights bus station to the tune of half a million dollars. The new design was supposed to ease the flow of buses in an out of traffic and make the station more pleasant for riders. It was also part of the development plan for Friendship Heights years ago, when taller, more dense development was only allowed on the condition that a bus terminal would remain linked to Metro's rail station.
There's a problem with the shiny, new terminal though: about a third of Metro's current bus fleet - and more in the future - can't use it. Newer hybrid electric or natural gas Metrobuses are taller than older diesel buses by several inches, and are unable to clear the covered loading area.
Instead of the uncluttered transit center that was envisioned, The Washington Post reports that buses now crowd the intersection of Wisconsin and Western Avenues, and commuters are more unsure of where to go than ever. Metro has been unable to explain the error away, saying only that it was discovered as the construction process was coming to a close. Of course, Metro also tells the Post that the "...older diesel buses are just as environmentally friendly as the newer hybrid or natural-gas powered buses," so we are having a hard time putting much stock in their explanation.
Fixing the error won't be any easier then explaining (or spinning) it. The floor of the office building above prevents Metro from increasing the height of the ceiling, and lowering the floor could damage the building's foundation. Though some say Metro appears poised to abandon the station, Friendship Heights zoning requirements require it.
Quite a pickle indeed. Perhaps Metro could just scrap the Friendship Heights routes that use the station and call it cost cutting to make yet another tight budget?
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Oh, what a clusterfuck. Having been involved in some similar design snafus, it's sometimes difficult to assign blame. However it seems like in this case WMATA is solely to blame. They are (or should be) fully aware of their vehicle fleet and the clearance differences. My guess is that the original designs were put together when the hybrid buses didn't exist, and no one ever thought to double-check the clearance during later design reviews. (I see this is mentioned in the article)
Way to go engineers. ha.
You know, I spend my whole day fixing problems that were initially poorly engineered.
ironically enough, working in that same building, is a company that insures architects and engineers, and they regularly have to deal with problems such as these with their clients. if only WMATA had consulted with them about their own building, it might have been prevented!
I offer two facts for Metro's consideration:
1) Almost all metro busses "kneel" to accomodate elderly or disabled passengers.
2) The average age of a Friendship Heights resident is about 97.
Why can't the busses kneel under the building?
A bus cannot move while "kneeling".
It seems odd that the foundation of a large structure (unless built on some sort of underground vault) would be damaged by lowering grade by "a few inches".
That's okay, they can just have the buses pull up next to the new Barney's Co-op and Louis Vuitton, right?
Maybe they can scrape off a few inches of pavement to accomodate the busses?
Let's not forget that originally the station rehab was only supposed to take 3 months -- it took 14. Not to mention the previous year it was closed for 3 mos. also, to grade the driveways (?). Of course in between that, while the station was open, they rehabbed the escalator on that side, instead of fixing the escalator while the station was closed. After it reopened this month, they decided to fix the damaged brick work. Can we say coordination?