Hundreds of cracks in concrete panels have been found on buildings at the rail yard being built near Dulles International Airport for the Silver Line, the latest in a growing list of construction problems that have plagued the multibillion-dollar rail project.
Officials at the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which is overseeing construction of the next phase of the Silver Line, said cranes used to maintain the rail cars don’t meet “Buy America” requirements and will have to be replaced. And in another instance, a platform at a building where trains are parked had to be removed and rebuilt because it was built using the wrong dimensions.
Coming a week after The Washington Post reported that more than 400 concrete rail ties have flaws in them that can cause the tracks to tilt outward, the list of problems and concerns about oversight of the $5.8 billion rail project has forced project officials to concede that they may not make the August deadline they’ve set for completion of the rail line. The project is already 13 months behind schedule.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Lori Aratani over at the Washington Post