Montgomery County Plans to Turn Silver Spring Transit Center Over to WMATA Soon

County leaders say it will happen within a matter of weeks

By Andrew Metcalf

Panoramic photo of the Silver Spring Transit Center via Montgomery County's project website.

Montgomery County officials are expected to turn over the new Silver Spring Transit Center to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority as early as mid-July.

General Services Director David Dise, who has been guiding the problem-filled project through its development, said in an email Wednesday the county plans to turn over the transit center “within a matter of weeks.” He said no firm date has been set yet though.

On Saturday, County Executive Ike Leggett was more specific, saying the center would be turned over “in about three weeks, two days and one hour or so,” while addressing a crowd at the grand opening of the new Silver Spring library. That date would be Monday, July 13.

Dise said all core remediation work, such as strengthening the center’s beams and girders and applying a new concrete overlay, is complete. The $140 million bus depot connected to the Silver Spring Metro station is about $50 million over budget and four years behind schedule due to construction and structural issues.

“We are wrapping up issues such as installation of the ‘Next Bus’ messaging display system and reinstalling drains, conduit and other items removed to perform the mediation work,” Dise wrote in an email. “WMATA and County Ride On are scheduling training sessions for bus operator trainers for mid- to late July.”

Dise added that the county is working with WMATA to reduce the number of items the transit operator needs to review before it accepts the building and opens it.

On June 9, the County Council appointed the law firm Saul Ewing, LLP—known for its work litigating Boston’s “Big Dig” project—to represent the county in legal issues concerning the transit center.

An independent committee chaired by former Lockheed Martin CEO Norman Augustine found possible safety problems at the transit center, including cracks in the concrete and issues with the beams and girders that brace the structure. The committee’s 2014 report led the county to conduct the remediation work.

Leggett has said the county will pursue legal action to recover cost overruns from the center’s general contractor, Foulger-Pratt, and other firms that worked on the project.