The major water intrusion at Virginia Square Metro station on Monday morning.

/ courtesy of Niina H. Farah

Update, 12:02 p.m.

Trains are no longer single tracking at Virginia Square after Monday morning’s large leak in the ceiling. Metro spokesperson Dan Stessel says inspectors determined that the leak was caused by the large volume of water above ground, which exceeded the capacity of the surface-level drainage system and found a way out via the station ceiling. Inspectors confirmed there are no outstanding structural issues, according to Stessel.

WMATA ran a test train through the area after the inspection was over, and has now resumed normal service at the station.

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As the entire D.C. area struggled to cope with severe flash floods on Monday morning, a torrent of water began streaming in through one of the panels in the ceiling of the Virginia Square Metro station. The water forced crews to close one side of the station and single track trains around the flooding.

The severe water intrusion began shortly before 9 a.m. and lasted for about 20 minutes, says Metro spokesperson Dan Stessel. After that, the water tapered off, but crews are inspecting the cause of the leak, and Orange and Silver trains continue to single track through the station, Stessel says.

James Pizzurro, a software engineer in the D.C. area and the lead developer of the D.C. Metro Hero app, says that this isn’t the first time the Virginia Square Metro ceiling has sprung a significant leak. He tells DCist he has reported a leak in the same area of the ceiling to Metro at least twice before, once by phone and once on Twitter.

Pizzurro says that the first time he noticed a leak in the ceiling at the station was as far back as 2014, though he says it has never been as severe as the flood of water from this morning. In August 2018, he reported the problem on Twitter. Metro responded that it would alert plant maintenance.

Stessel tells DCist that he was unaware of any previous reported problems at Virginia Square. He says leaks of this kind have occurred at other Metro stations in the past, and that it’s usually the result of some kind of blockage in the water-drainage system at street level.

Stessel says he has not heard reports of other leaks disrupting service this morning. But riders have shared images and videos of leaks at the Capitol South station (which also experienced a major leak from the ceiling during flooding last year), Foggy Bottom, and the elevator at the Pentagon station.

https://twitter.com/Seth_Maloney/status/1148217719780716544

Filed Under: flash flood, flooding, metro, wmata,