SILVER SPRING, Md. — The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) announced that they will start work to replace the five entrance escalators at the Silver Spring Station on Sept. 6.
The work, which starts on Tuesday, will begin at the north entrance between East-West Highway and Second Avenue. The entrance will close for the construction for around four months. According to WMATA, closing the entrance will help to cut the work time in half.
The construction will not impact Metrorail service and customers should be able to access the station from the south entrance closest to the Paul S. Sarbanes Transit Center.
Once the escalators on the north side are completed, the entrance will reopen and work will begin to replace the three south entrance escalators. Unlike the construction on the north entrance, the new escalators in the south entrance will be installed one at a time and will remain open to customers. The process will take around 11 months to complete.
This is a part of an ongoing project to replace 130 escalators across the Metrorail system by 2028. The customer improvements will bring more durable and reliable escalators, WMATA said.
To date, Metro has completed the installation of 27 new escalators with 13 more underway as part of the project.