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Dupont Circle South Closed For Eight Months

By: Armando Trull // February 1, 2012
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The south entrance of the Dupont Circle Metro station will be closed for more than eight months as contractors replace the notoriously unreliable escalators. 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mvjantzen/866034346/
The south entrance of the Dupont Circle Metro station will be closed for more than eight months as contractors replace the notoriously unreliable escalators. 

Metro riders who have grown accustomed to using the south entrance of the Dupont Circle Metro will be in for a shock. The entrance is closed, boarded up with big blue plywood barriers as WMATA contractors in hard hats work on the notoriously-finecky escalators.

Dan Stessel explains that this is just the start of a full-scale escalator replacement at Dupont South.

"It's a full replacement of all three escalators here at the entrance," says Stessel. "Because of the length and tight space of this entrance, it is necessary to close the south entrance, but customers can use either Farragut North or the north entrance at Dupont Circle."

Stessel says the replacement is going to take eight and a half months, and that is with contractors working on a compressed schedule. The Dupont Circle escalators were amongst the most unreliable in the Metro system, and WMATA is replacing them with brand new industrial-strength escalators that promise to be much more reliable.

"Our plan over the next several years is to replace 94 of Metro's 588 escalators. It's all part of Metro Forward -- our program to rebuild Metro," says Stessel.

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