Get There

Most of the Eisenhower Avenue Connector will be closed to traffic, bicycles and pedestrians beginning at noon tomorrow (Monday, July 6) through September. This is part of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Project and will allow deck replacement work on the Capital Beltway I-95/495 Bridge above the Connector. Vehicle traffic from Eisenhower Avenue to the Inner Loop of the Beltway is the only remaining movement allowed.

The detailed schedule of activities:

Beginning Monday, July 6 (weather permitting):
--> At 12 p.m., access from the Eisenhower Avenue Connector to the Outer Loop of the Beltway and the Outer Loop to the Eisenhower Avenue Connector will be closed to vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians.
--> Through traffic on the Outer Loop will travel in the three left most lanes over the Connector Bridge.

Beginning Friday, July 10 (weather permitting):
--> At 10:00 p.m., dependent on traffic volume, the Outer Loop of the Beltway will be reduced to one lane for striping work.
--> Work will conclude by 7:00 a.m., Saturday July 11, and result in traffic in the right lane of the Outer Loop being diverted to the right, using the Eisenhower Avenue Connector ramps as a third Outer Loop travel lane.
--> Motorists will not be allowed to turn onto the Connector or stop on these ramps.
--> This configuration will remain in place through September to allow the Beltway Bridge work.

* *

Signs will be posted stating that Exit 174 is closed and to follow detours via Van Dorn Street or Telegraph Road to access Eisenhower Avenue from the Outer Loop. Additional signs will alert bicyclists and pedestrians that the Connector is closed to them and that they should use alternative routes. (South Van Dorn Street is a possible alternative.)

The earlier closure of the exit ramp from the Inner Loop to the Connector is scheduled to remain in place into October, when the new Inner Loop Local lanes will be completed and all Inner Loop traffic shifted over to the new lanes west of the Beltway Bridge over Cameron Run.

All construction-related work and dates are subject to change, depending on weather, material and contractor availability or other unforeseen conditions.

Riders are continuing to fill up cars across the Metro system, but the post-fireworks traffic surge has passed.

At the Federal Triangle station on the Blue and Orange lines, riders tell Staff Writer Yamiche Alcindor that they have waited more than 45 minutes to catch a train. But at the Smithsonian station, there were no longer lines to get on trains after 11:30 p.m.

Red Line trains passing through Metro Center are still full, but crowds are thinning.

UPDATE (11:31 p.m.): A Metro transit worker at the scene of the smoke incident tells The Post's Emma Brown that trash falling through the grate and onto the fluorescent lights likely caused the smoke that closed half the Green Line between 10:20 and 11 p.m.

UPDATE (11:17): Metro spokesperson Angela Gates said there was smoke emitting from a light fixture on the track at Gallery Place-Chinatown on the side where trains travel toward Greenbelt. The incident happened at 10:20 p.m.

Metro officials at the scene turned off the power on that track. When they decided it was safe to operate trains through there, they resumed service at 11 p.m.

During that period, they ran trains on the Green Line on the opposite track. Trains are now running in both directions. This is causing some lingering delays.

"That was the only real hiccup we've had tonight," Gates said by phone.

She said the busiest stations have been Smithsonian, Federal Triangle, Metro Center, L'Enfant Plaza and Gallery Place. As of 10 pm, 499,549 people had entered the system today. The system remains open until 3 a.m.

UPDATE (11:05): Metro has sent an alert saying that the situation has been "resolved," but delays in both directions on the Green Line will persist.

UPDATE (10:59): Officials blocking the platform have moved. An announcement was made that trains will begin running both directions on the Green Line momentarily.

A Metro official at the scene said that the cause of the smoke was a set of fluorescent lights overheating. About twenty feet of fluorescent lights under the grate are now dark. They will probably be replaced tomorrow.

UPDATE (10:57): District fire units have responded to reports of smoke on the Green Line, which passengers can smell faintly. Police are blocking anyone from traveling down the escalator to the Green and Yellow line platforms, but the station remains occupied. Three Metro employees with flashlights are currently inspecting the fluorescent lights underneath the grates next to the tracks. Officials at the tracks are saying that the platform should be open again in a few minutes, Emma Brown reports from the scene. Passengers are still disembarking from the track that's open.

ORIGINAL POST (10:45): There is smoke in the station at Gallery Place-Chinatown on the Green Line. As a result, trains are single tracking between L'Enfant Plaza and Mt. Vernon Square (that also includes Archives-Navy Memorial).

Riders going either toward Greenbelt or Branch Ave. should expect delays, Metro says.

Staff Writer Yamiche Alcindor says that the crowd at the Federal Triangle stop on the Blue-Orange lines is at least a quarter-mile long.

"it's expected," said Carson Johanson, 22, of Herndon, Va., waiting in a line a block long at
the Federal Triangle station.

She said last year that the lines were worse and the trains so packed she
crouched to the ground to avoid being pushed into others.

Three separate lines are flowing outside of the Smithsonian station. Police say there have been no incidents at that location on the Blue-Orange Line, but (despite warnings and the size of the crowd) some riders are surprised.

Jan Gurtner, 62 of Oakton, Va., thought opening the Smithsonian station up at the end of the night would clear people out fast. But it wasn't nearly as quick as she hoped.

"I thought this would be a breeze," she told the Post's Greg Gaudio, from her vantage point as the last person in a line that extends all the way to the Smithsonian Castle.

447,576 trips have been taken on the Metro system today, as of 9 p.m., according to Metro stats posted on their web site.

Here is Metro's release.

Staff Writer Emma Brown reports that it seems lighter at Metro Center to some regular riders than in the last few years.

Red Line trains are moving toward Glenmont about every 12 minutes. Trains to Shady Grove are arriving more frequently. A crowd has formed on both platforms.

Just before 10 p.m., a crowd cheered on the platform when an almost empty train pulled into the station.

Virginia Department of Transportation advises that drivers on I-395 North can expect backups as long as five miles. This sort of post-fireworks traffic is expected, and no significant accidents have been reported.

Fireworks on the Mall ended just before 9:30 p.m. Four Post reporters are monitoring traffic at Metro stations. So far, all report that the crowds are large and lines are building. But at Metro Center on the Red Line and Smithsonian on the Blue-Orange Line, everything seems (so far) about as busy as expected. No word of any incidents that should cause delays beyond what Metro officials have already warned us all about.

UPDATE (6:17 p.m.): Metro says the disruption at Eastern Market is fully resolved.

Staff Writer Greg Gaudio reports from the Smithsonian Metro stop that the station is only open for those who are exiting right now, and that traffic flow is heavy but moving quickly and orderly.

ORIGINAL POST:
Metro says a train malfunctioned at the Eastern Market station on the Blue-Orange Line, but apparently the problem has been resolved. A system alert says this will still lead to likely delays on the line taking riders toward the Smithsonian stop, four away from Eastern Market.

Around the Metro system over the past two hours, riders have said they were pleasantly surprised with how well the system -- including the Red Line -- is moving, even as it is crowding up in advance of the afternoon rush.

This blogger checked out typical choke points and bottlenecks from between noon and 2 p.m. Crowds were moving pretty smoothly, and trains were coming at regular intervals in both directions. (We checked Gallery Place-Chinatown, Metro Center and Farragut North).

The Green Line, filled with fans heading toward the Navy Yard station and the now in-progress Nationals game, was not much more crowded than might be expected for a game on an ordinary Saturday.

At the Smithsonian station on the Blue Line, there was no one waiting to leave around 1 p.m. But lots of people were getting off the train. Still, the large crowds seemed civil. That stop has been closed on July Fourth over the past few years, but officials opened it this year as part of an effort to alleviate delays.

A train experiencing mechanical problems at the Landover station around 11 a.m. forced trains to share the same track between Cheverly and New Carrollton on the Orange Line. That incident was cleared up about two hours ago.

The Metro will get more crowded over the next few hours, as the masses descend on the National Mall for tonight's fireworks. The trains will also certainly be packed full after the fireworks when the folks who came in to town over the course of the day all try to get at once. Metro officials warn that riders should expect to wait up to 90 minutes to get on any train near the National Mall after the end of tonight's fireworks show.

There are lots of tourists out on the lines today. One piece of evidence: the number of flashes from their digital cameras. What local would want his or her photo taken in the depths of the station?