In today's edition of Purple Line NOW News, here's what you'll find:

• What's Happening at PLN?
  • Questions for Forum Due by Noon TODAY!
  • Last Chance to Register for Purple Line NOW Forum!
  • Please Help Us Continue Our Work
• Purple Line in the News
• Construction News
  • Montgomery County Council Briefing Highlights

Share This Newsletter

Please feel free to share this newsletter - no permission from us needed! You can always find a link to our newsletter on our Purple Line NOW website which makes it easy to share with your friends, neighbors, constituents, customers, and employees.

WHAT'S HAPPENING AT PLN?

Questions for Forum Due by Noon Today

Do you have a last minute burning question for our presenters tomorrow night? Don't forget to send in your questions for our presenters by NOON today. Many of you have already sent in questions -- rest assured, if we don't get to all of the questions in the time allotted, we will publish those answers in a future newsletter.

You can email questions to: Christine Scott, PLN Executive Director, [email protected], but hurry!

Last Chance to Register for Purple Line NOW Forum!

We have a terrific slate of speakers for the Purple Line NOW forum THIS Thursday, September 22 from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm (via Zoom)!

• Ray Biggs II, Project Director for Purple Line, MDOT MTA
• Anita Rodgers, Anita Rodgers, Deputy Project Director for Purple Line, MDOT MTA
• Doran Bosso, CEO, Purple Line Transit Partners LLC
• Terry Gohde, Project Manager, Maryland Transit Solutions
• Hugo Fontirroig, Deputy Project Manager, Maryland Transit Solutions

If you haven't registered yet, this is your last chance to do so! Click on the green button below which will take you to the registration page. The forum is free and open to the public and press, but you must register in advance!

Event Sponsorship: If you would like to sponsor the event, please let us know. We publish all our donors and sponsors at every forum – we can’t do this without you. Thanks in advance for your consideration!

Please Help Us Continue Our Work

As you can see from our exciting announcement above, our work continues! To that end, as we enter our fundraising season, we hope you will take a moment to consider a donation to Purple Line NOW to help us continue offering these educational events, producing this newsletter, keeping on top of breaking news, and helping you get answers to questions or concerns that pop up as construction resumes to full speed. Donating online is easy – just click the PURPLE button below! 

We are proud to be supported by our donors and use every opportunity we can to let the community know how much we appreciate you. Unless you tell us otherwise, your name (or company name) will be listed on our website for a year following your donation, highlighted at our virtual and in person public events, and in printed materials where possible.

Not sure whether you’ve given in the past 12 months? You can check out our donor page – if you don’t see your name, we would be grateful if you would consider renewing your donation for the coming year. If you do see your name, but would like to know when your year is up, shoot us an email at [email protected] and we can tell you when your year’s donation is ending.

We exist because we are led by a group of dedicated volunteer board and team members, many who have been working on behalf of seeing this transit line come to life for many decades! We have a part time executive director (that’s me!) We operate solely on donations from folks like you.

Our books are always open – if you would like to see our most recent financial reports or how we use your donations to further our mission, send us an email or give us a call and we will be happy to share. Our treasurer gets nervous when we get below $3,000 in the bank and we are approaching that point just in time for our fundraising season.

Thank you in advance for your consideration!

THE PURPLE LINE IN THE NEWS

DePuyt, B. "After two years in low gear, work resumes." Maryland Matters, 12 September 2022.

CONSTRUCTION UPDATES & PROJECT FEATURES

Montgomery County Council Purple Line Briefing

The briefing was held a week ago, September 13, 2022. You can catch the full briefing video here or download the briefing report:

Briefing the Council was Matt Pollack, Executive Director of Transit & Delivery for MDOT MTA, Doran Bosso, CEO of Purple Line Transit Partners, Terry Gohde, Project Manager, Maryland Transit Solutions, and Hugo Fontirroig, Deputy Project Manager, Maryland Transit Solutions.

The team confirmed the opening of revenue service for the Purple Line will be Fall 2026, four years behind the original schedule. A fare structure has not yet been decided.

Mr. Pollack reviewed some of important benefits of the future line including, “new multimodal connections to our three MARC lines, four WMATA subway lines, and bus transfers including the Takoma Langley transit center.” He added the convenience and dependability of east-west transit tops the list for the community.

As for timeline, Mr. Pollack said the project is currently “between the mobilization phase and beginning of construction period.” The State crews are still out in the field working, but MTS is now, as well. A lot of their focus has been in the area of maintenance facility and test track because, Pollack explained, “that will factor into the critical portion of the schedule where we need to get our test track complete to start as soon possible and for as long as necessary to have a safe opening in the fall of 2026.” MTS is currently reviewing the entire alignment.

One of our favorite topics, the light rail vehicles, was highlighted, with 26 of the 28 cars completed and resting in Elmira, New York. Nineteen of those cars would be able to ship right now if the facility was ready to accept them, so the push to get the maintenance facility ready is important.

You may remember the original order was for 26 cars, but the team added two more cars to help with reliability and run times to make sure it is predictable and convenient.

The way the cars look make be a surprise to some because they are much longer than we are used to seeing.  At 142 feet – about 1.5 times of what a normal car looks like – these will be the longest cars currently used in the country.  

The presentation included lots of details about timeline, alignment-wide work occurring, as well as technical insight into certain points along the alignment, but the main questions to come from council members circled around both the trail and pedestrian safety.

Right now, the trail is scheduled to open concurrently with the opening of revenue service for the Purple Line, which is different from what the former builder had indicated in terms of the potential for a soft opening of the trail prior to the beginning of passenger service.

The question was asked by several councilmembers about why at least portions of the trail cannot be open during testing, understanding that active construction would prevent that from occurring. The team was strongly urged to find a way to accommodate the promise made by the previous builder. Councilmember Andrew Friedson noted that many residents rely on the trail for their everyday lives and is very important in the way they get to work, school, etc. He went on to say that the loss of the trail which they thought would be a temporary closure of a few years, has stretched on and that it “would go a long way to restore the trust” to find a way to open portions of the trail early where possible.

Councilmember Albornoz asked whether there were any concerns about supply chain delays?

Mr. Gohde said, “We have spent these past months since April putting ourselves in a position that we can start the work and not shut it back down for something we didn’t foresee. We have been very deliberate in taking our time to be sure. Right now we have 100 management level folks, labor force is about 70 plus. We have significant subs. We believe that we have mitigated those challenges.”

Questions from Councilmember Hucker surrounded pedestrian safety and access, saying that the leaders of the project have been very responsive and helpful, but there is still the need for more staffing and infrastructure to guarantee safety.

We encourage you to listen to the full briefing if you would like to hear all the questions asked and to see the full slide show. We would also make a shameless plug for you to attend the Purple Line NOW Forum tomorrow evening, Thursday, September 22 where the key project leaders from the state, concessionaire, and builder will brief attendees and answers questions. You must register at the link above to attend the virtual event.

One final note, we were tickled that Purple Line NOW was tangentially mentioned by Councilmember Andrew Friedson during the briefing who noted, “the project is as old as I am. Harry Sanders’ son is now carrying the banner for the Purple Line. [Harry was Purple Line NOW's founder, his son, Greg Sanders, is now Purple Line NOW Vice President.] We can put the stops and starts and lawsuits behind us. Work with teams and labor organization to get it done.”

We couldn’t agree more, Councilmember Friedson!

Photos from Around the Corridor

As construction ramps up this autumn, snap a few photos and send them to us at [email protected]. With your permission, we'll give you photo credit and publish the photo when space allows. Today's photos of the Crescent at Chevy Chase project come from Rob Bindeman of Landmark Realty, Inc. 

Future Connecticut Avenue Station, adjacent to Chevy Chase Lake

Crescent at Chevy Chase

STAY CONNECTED

Get Connected

Make sure you are signed up for timely alerts from Purple Line NOW via our Twitter and Facebook pages, and at our website Purple Line NOW.

In today's edition of Purple Line NOW News, here's what you'll find:

• What's Happening at PLN?
  • Exciting News! Forum Registration is now OPEN!
  • Fall Fundraising Season Is Here - Can You Help Us Continue Our Work?
  • In Case You Missed Our 100th Edition of PLN News
• Purple Line in the News
• Construction News & Project Features
  
  • Labor Agreement Reached

Share This Newsletter

Please feel free to share this newsletter - no permission from us needed! You can always find a link to our newsletter on our Purple Line NOW website which makes it easy to share with your friends, neighbors, constituents, customers, and employees.

WHAT'S HAPPENING AT PLN?

Registration for September 22 Purple Line NOW Forum is OPEN!

Just before Purple Line NOW News went on its annual August break, we snuck in a little bit of our own breaking news! We hope you eagle-eyed readers out there marked your calendars for the next Purple Line NOW Forum, but if you missed it, keep on reading.

We are SUPER excited to announce the next Purple Line NOW forum will be on Thursday, September 22, at 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm! This forum will bring together representatives from MDOT MTA, Purple Line Transit Partners (PLTP), and the new builder, Maryland Transit Solutions (MTS). In the coming days, we will announce the full slate of speakers, but please take a moment to register below. As with all the fora we have hosted over the past six years, these remain free and open to the public and press, but you must register in advance:

Questions for Panelists? Please submit questions in advance of the webinar – our panelists will try to answer as many as they can in the time allotted. The early you can submit your questions, the better the opportunity for us to provide some answers, so don't delay! Send your questions to Christine Scott, Purple Line NOW Executive Director at [email protected].

Event Sponsorship: If you would like to sponsor the event, please let us know. We publish all our donors and sponsors at every forum – we can’t do this without you. Thanks in advance for your consideration!

Fall Fundraising Season Is Here - Can You Help Us Continue Our Work?

As you can see from our exciting announcement above, our work continues! To that end, as we enter our fundraising season, we hope you will take a moment to consider a donation to Purple Line NOW to help us continue offering these educational events, producing this newsletter, keeping on top of breaking news, and helping you get answers to questions or concerns that pop up as construction resumes to full speed. Donating online is easy – just click the PURPLE button below! 

We are proud to be supported by our donors and use every opportunity we can to let the community know how much we appreciate you. Unless you tell us otherwise, your name (or company name) will be listed on our website for a year following your donation, highlighted at our virtual and in person public events, and in printed materials where possible.

Not sure whether you’ve given in the past 12 months? You can check out our donor page – if you don’t see your name, we would be grateful if you would consider renewing your donation for the coming year. If you do see your name, but would like to know when your year is up, shoot us an email at [email protected] and we can tell you when your year’s donation is ending.

We exist because we are led by a group of dedicated volunteer board and team members, many who have been working on behalf of seeing this transit line come to life for many decades! We have a part time executive director (that’s me!) We operate solely on donations from folks like you.

Our books are always open – if you would like to see our most recent financial reports or how we use your donations to further our mission, send us an email or give us a call and we will be happy to share. Our treasurer gets nervous when we get below $3,000 in the bank and we are approaching that point just in time for our fundraising season.

Thank you in advance for your consideration!

In Case You Missed It!

THE PURPLE LINE IN THE NEWS

Shaver, K. "Labor agreement reached on Maryland’s Purple Line construction." Washington Post, 30 August 2022.

CONSTRUCTION UPDATES & PROJECT FEATURES

Labor Agreement Reached

We were happy to see that while we were away for our August break, the contractor and the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) reached an agreement, paving the way for crews to ramp up construction between now and the end of October. You can read more about the terms of the agreement here. We are glad that work is resuming and look forward to seeing crews hard at work along the Purple Line corridor in the coming weeks. With the onslaught of construction work impending, you are encouraged to sign up for MDOT MTA text alerts for your area.

Photos from Around the Corridor

As construction ramps up this autumn, snap a few photos and send them to us at [email protected]. With your permission, we'll give you photo credit and publish the photo when space allows. Thanks to MDOT MTA for the following photos of work that occurred late summer:

STAY CONNECTED

Get Connected

Make sure you are signed up for timely alerts from Purple Line NOW via our Twitter and Facebook pages, and at our website Purple Line NOW.

In today's edition of Purple Line NOW News, here's what you'll find:

• What's Happening at PLN?
  • In Case You Missed the 100th Issue!
  • Can You Consider a Donation to Purple Line NOW?
• Purple Line in the News
• Happening Along the Purple Line Corridor
  • Upcoming Forum Alert
• Construction News & Project Features
  
  • Highlights from the CATS

Share This Newsletter

Please feel free to share this newsletter - no permission from us needed! You can always find a link to our newsletter on our Purple Line NOW website which makes it easy to share with your friends, neighbors, constituents, customers, and employees.

WHAT'S HAPPENING AT PLN?

Make sure to scroll down to the "Happening Along the Purple Line Corridor" section to see our big announcement about the next forum!

In Case You Missed It!

Our commemorative 100th edition was chock full of memories. In case you didn't catch the special email that went out with the link, you can still catch it here. Thanks to all who contributed by sending in memories, photos, and ideas!

Would You Consider a Donation to Purple Line NOW?

Each month, we rotate onto our Donors List those who have made a financial contribution to Purple Line NOW in the previous month. If that includes you, your name will stay on that list for a full year following your contribution. Thank you, thank you! Our budget is skinny and we do a whole lot with a little!

**If you do not see your name on our Donors List, we hope you will consider helping us continue our work!** 

We use every donation we receive to continue our newsletter, continue offering regular webinars, continue being a strong liaison to help connect you to people who can solve your issues, and continue our strong advocacy for the project in every way possible. If you would like to know more about who we are, why we are asking for donations, and what we do with your gift once it arrives on our doorstep, you can read all about it in our November newsletter.

Thank you so much for your consideration! Unless you tell us otherwise, your name will be listed on our website and in publications for a year following your donation.

THE PURPLE LINE IN THE NEWS

Goffman, E. "Montgomery and Prince George’s counties seek to expand housing affordability toolbox along Purple Line." Greater Greater Washington, 8 July 2022.

HAPPENING ALONG THE PURPLE LINE CORRIDOR

Upcoming Forum Announcement

Purple Line NOW's next forum will happen in late September and feature representatives from MDOT MTA, Purple Line Transit Partners (the concessionaire), and Maryland Transit Solutions (the new builder). We will have a date and open the sign up portal for attendees soon. This will be a virtual forum and, as always, is open and free to the public and press. We will announce that date soon, so watch this space!

CONSTRUCTION UPDATES & PROJECT FEATURES

Highlights from the Community Advisory Team Meetings

We finish up with a short summary of the summer’s final three Community Advisory Team (CAT) meetings. For this edition, we focus on the Silver Spring, Long Branch, and University Boulevard CATs, but you can see summaries of other CATS in our newsletter archives or view the entire presentation from the Purple Line team on their website.

As with the other sessions, presenters for each CAT began with a quick update of the entire line, plans for the future, and a quick look back to what has been accomplished. Again, see our previous newsletters for that overview of the entire alignment.

Silver Spring

The Silver Spring CAT meeting was held on June 21, 2022 and presented by Matthew Pollack PE, PMP, Executive Director; Gary Witherspoon, Deputy Project Director - Public Outreach; Mike Gales, Area Manager; Dwain Sanders, Operations Manager; Carla Julian, Stakeholder Manager.

The stations in this segment include:

• Silver Spring Metro
• Silver Spring Library
• Dale Drive

Work over the past six months along this portion of the alignment included pothole and roadway resurfacing, erosion and sediment control, as well as mowing and site clean up along Ramsey Street. Sewer relocation was completed, but other utilities including, water, gas, power, and telecoms relocations continued.

Along Georgia Avenue, crews continued relocating utilities, which included underground and overhead relocations.

On Wayne Avenue, from Fenton Street to Dale Drive, Dale Drive to Manchester Place, and Sligo Creek Parkway to Plymouth Tunnel, utility relocations are continuing.

Looking ahead six months, they hope to complete water, gas, and underground relocations along Ramsey Street, Georgia Avenue, Bonifant Street, and Wayne Avenue. As we have been told, the entire project includes a massive utility relocation effort and now that we are in the nitty-gritty of construction, we see those relocations continuing all along the alignment.

Crews hope to begin utility relocations and stormwater management facilities along the CSX tracks as well as resuming work at the Silver Spring Transit Center, along with commencing work on the mezzanine.

On Bonifant Street, they hope to advance utility relocations that were not completed by MTA, and along Wayne Avenue, they will begin construction on the storm drain outfall into Sligo Creek as well as the construction of a 54’ watermain along the west side of Wayne Avenue.

Traffic will be limited to the south side of the existing bridge at Sligo Creek Bridge (over Wayne Avenue) while they begin bridge demolition of the north side bridge. Please see full presentation for diagrams of the new traffic patterns.

Long Branch

The Long Branch CAT Meeting was held on June 28, 2022 and the presenters were:

Matthew Pollack PE, PMP, Executive Director, Transit Development and Delivery; David Abrams, Director of Communications; Mike Gales, Area Manager; Manuel Merino, Area 3 Manager; Carla Julian, Stakeholder Manager.

The stations in this segment include:

• Manchester Place
• Long Branch
• Piney Branch Road

Work over the past six months included continued utility relocations, as well as sidewalk repair and reconstruction, and site cleanup and mowing.

At Piney Branch Road, the road was resurfaced and sidewalk repair and reconstruction was completed.

Looking ahead over the next six months, overhead telecom relocations at Arliss Street and Piney Branch Road will continue. At Manchester Place Station, crews will continue the construction of the station structure and at Plymouth Tunnel, they hope to complete the concrete base for the tracks in the tunnel. They also will begin the installation of mechanical systems.

At Arliss Street, crews will begin construction of stormwater facilities, the construction of a retaining wall along the Giant property, and on Piney Branch Road, they will begin construction of Long Branch stream fish passage.

Manchester Place Rendering

University Boulevard

The University Boulevard CAT meeting was held on June 23, 2022 and the presenters were: Matthew Pollack PE, PMP, Executive Director; Gary Witherspoon, Deputy Project Director - Public Outreach; Kevin Oberheim, Construction Manager; Manuel Merino, Area 3 Manager; Carla Julian, Stakeholder Manager.

The stations in this segment include:

• Takoma-Langley
• Riggs Road
• Adelphi Road - UMGC - UMD

Work over the past six months along University Boulevard included continued utility relocations and along Northwest Branch Bridge, crews continued bridge construction including widening, curbs, sidewalks, and drainage swales. They also installed new pedestrian signals at West Park Drive to prepare for future traffic switch, paved the bridge approach, and installed railing and deck grooving.

In the next six months, they hope to compete the remaining utility relocations along University Boulevard and begin stormwater drainage system installation at the following intersections:

• Carroll Avenue
• New Hampshire Avenue
• Riggs Road
• West Park Drive

At the Northwest Branch Bridge, they will be switching pedestrian traffic to the new bridge on the north side of University Boulevard to prepare for construction on the south bridge.

Takoma-Langley Station Rendering

STAY CONNECTED

Get Connected

Make sure you are signed up for timely alerts from Purple Line NOW via our Twitter and Facebook pages, and at our website Purple Line NOW.

Our 100th Issue Is Finally Here!!!

Because there are so many photographs and stories that were submitted for this special commemorative issue, we pulled them all together in a PDF for easier reading and less chance of getting caught in your spam folder. We hope you enjoy this walk down memory lane with us. For you old timers (in Purple Line years, that is), some of the photographs will be bittersweet, and for those who are new to the area, but lovers of transit, we hope you find this retrospective insightful. Thank you for everyone who took the time to send photos, memories, and documents. We are grateful.

To read this special issue, you'll need to click on the link below.

Click here > Commemorative 100th Issue

STAY CONNECTED

Get Connected

Make sure you are signed up for timely alerts from Purple Line NOW via our Twitter and Facebook pages, and at our website Purple Line NOW.