Photo by Daniel Kelly

Photo by Daniel Kelly

For the third summer in a row, passengers inside of Dupont Circle and Farragut North stations are battling sweltering heat due to a failure in Metro’s cooling system.

The transit system announced last week that they have a temporary solution that is expected to begin cooling off customers at the end of June.

Metro’s underground stations are cooled by “chillers,” which are chilled water air handling units. If the temperatures is 91 degrees outside, the chillers will bring the station’s temperature to 85 degrees, according to Metro.

The issues with Dupont Circle and Farragut North’s shared chiller date back to summer 2015, with the 40-year-old water pipes that run under Connecticut Avenue NW and connect the stations’ chiller plant to a nearby cooling tower. Workers were unable to repair leaks along the lines during attempts in 2015 and the following summer.

Since receiving all of the necessary permits, Metro officials say crews are working to install a portable 750-ton cooling tower as a seasonal fix. (The construction might impact traffic on Connecticut Avenue.) It’s expected to be complete by the end of this month and remain in place through the summer.

Crews will begin permanent repairs on the system after that.

For now, Metro officials say they’ve turned on tunnel and station fans, although it appears that some weren’t working this morning as Washingtonians face one of the hottest, most humid days of the year so far.

Filed Under: ac, air conditioning, chiller, dupont circle, farragut north, metro, wmata,