Planning to Begin for New Pentagon City Metro Elevator

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by ARLnow.com — July 16, 2012 at 1:30 pm 4,891 18 Comments

On Saturday, the Arlington County Board is expected to approve a contract to begin preliminary engineering for a new elevator at the Pentagon City Metro station.

With about 36,000 combined entries and exits per weekday, the Pentagon City station is the second busiest station in Northern Virginia — second only to Rosslyn — and the 10th busiest in the entire Metro system.

A study conducted by WMATA in 2010, at the request of Arlington County, concluded that a new elevator should be built on the west side of S. Hayes Street, near the Pentagon City mall, and across from an existing elevator on the east side of Hayes.

In a report, county staff says a second elevator will help improve access to the station for those with disabilities and for those with strollers and luggage, by eliminating the need to cross S. Hayes Street in order to use an elevator.

“Additionally, it will provide redundancy, in accordance with current WMATA design criteria, when one of the elevators is out of service for any reason,” staff added.

The contract for the initial engineering is worth $358,359, and is scheduled to be voted upon by the Board on Saturday. Once the preliminary engineering is completed, the county plans to proceed with a design-build construction process in order to save time and money.

The budget for the entire project includes $4.5 million in federal funds, $400,000 in state funds and $200,000 county bond funds.

Hikin the pike

FIVE MILLION FOR AN ELEVATOR?? I want that contract.
- Observer
  
  Forget the construction, that engineering contract looks like a gold mine. Look at some old drawings, analyze some soils reports, plug some numbers into a computer: voila, one elevator shaft design! Sounds like about a solid week’s worth of work for any competent engineering firm.
  - rocotten
    
    Like the new Rosslyn entrance, this is close to the existing entrance. Sure they are busy stations, but does a new entrance so close to the existing one really alleviate that much congestion or increase capacity?
    
    I would rather they put the money toward building a new entrance in Courthouse, behind the Arlington Rooftop Bar where there is land that has already been acquired for this purpose. This is not quite but almost half way between the existing Courthouse entrance (other end of the station from existing entrance) and the Clarendon station entrance and does much more to help broaden the reach of Metro access. This plus the future western entrance in Ballston seem much more exciting to me.
Clarencourt Neighbor

Does anyone know if they are planning to re-open the entrance to the station from the plaza on the North side of S 12th Street? There has recently been some work going on around the entrance in the station.
- wat
  
  I wish they would open that up, and maybe even do the future planned south entrance for which they have the punch out blocks.
Enough already

It would be nice if that elevator would go into reverse to keep the “DC hood rats” from robbing Pentagon city mall blind
Buckwheat

Bet we get a Chinese elevator!

Press B for Beijing!
JohnB

It is absolutely ridiculous that the county never spends any money on our critical infrastructure! /sarcasm
always right

All of the disabled persons that I have seen are disabled from their 50 pound excess. Maybe a diet would be cheaper.
Buckwheat

Why is this not fully funded by WMATA?

After all, they are bringing the “DC Rats” to Arlington.
Alex

I’d rather have the money spent on a western entrance for the Ballston Metro. You’ll attract a lot more new riders (and revenue) with infrastructure projects that result in real improvements that affect more people than just an elevator across the street from an existing one.
- Karl Rove
  
  The Orange Line can’t handle the extra people.
Suburban Not Urban

Should we wait to see what lesson’s can be learned from the similar Rossyln one(AKA whether these fancy ones are worth the cost)
Rusty Shackleford

Another elevator is fine, but what they need is fewer escalators and more stairs. There’s no reason to have so many escalators for this relatively shallow station, especially since it seems there’s always one or more broken.
Kim Un Arl

$5 million for an elevator? County Board, have you no shame? Federal Government — have you no common sense at all?

I am so far from a right-wing nut who listens to rant-radio, but for the love of god, has our government structure veered so far off the rails that thinking is out-of-bounds when it comes to spending tax money?
Paul

That anyone needs to cross the street for elevator access is a fallacy. There are escalators as well as elevators on that side of the street inside the mall.

But no matter. Five million dollars means that our country is at the breaking point of “earning money because we deserve to be rich.”
Glen Carlyn NOW

Isn’t there already an elevator from the Food Court level of the PCM to the Metro level?
S Chem

Never mind putting a new one outside. Do something or add one to the inside of the mall. The single elevator is a joke. I never use it but I see the poor souls cramming in there. People with strollers or wheelchairs have no choice but to cram in there to get to the second or third level in the mall. That single elevator looks worthless.

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