Double Your Donation to PLN!
Thank you to all who have given since we announced last month that we have a very generous donor who will match your donation, dollar for dollar -- from $25 up to $1,000 -- until the goal of $5,000 is reached!
For example, if you give a gift of $25, your donation will count as $50. If you give $1,000, your donation will count as $2,000. Any and all donations are welcome, small and large.
Purple Line NOW needs, on average, about $20,000 a year to accomplish the work mentioned above and continue its vigilance in helping to make this project a reality. Want to know who else is supporting Purple Line NOW? You can see a list of our generous donors at the link.
If you don’t see your name on the list, we hope you will consider Purple Line NOW as you make your holiday giving plans. And, if you do see your name on the list, but your annual donation is expiring, we hope you’ll take the opportunity to renew your donation during this period when your generosity will be doubled by the challenge grant!
It is because of this grant, and your participation in it, that we will be able to continue our services throughout the coming year, even as the pandemic has tightened everyone’s purse strings.
We are grateful that work is beginning anew throughout the Purple Line corridor and that a settlement has finally been reached between the State of Maryland and the Purple Line Transit Partners. Although there are still significant hurdles to scale, we are encouraged to see crews working hard to get things started again.
We want each of you to know that Purple Line NOW is as committed as ever to help see this project through to opening day.
We remain vigilant in our focus of zeroing in on community concerns, and proud we have been able to act as a bridge from the community to the builders of the Purple Line. To that end, we have seen a significant uptick in phone calls and emails from residents and businesses alike for answers to issues that have arisen due to construction or concerns over the future of the project.
We are extraordinarily grateful for all of our supporters -- we simply can't exist without you. Some of you may not realize that we are a nearly all-volunteer organization, with one quarter-time employee. Our core leadership meets each and every month, now via Zoom, and our full board meets every quarter to discuss and share all that is going on along the corridor, and to determine where Purple Line NOW can best be of service.
While fundraising for an organization such as ours is never easy -- we hold no special events; we simply ask for help when our coffers are low -- you have always been generous in your response. That support has allowed us to do our work for over two decades and continue into the future until we are all able to take that first Purple Line ride!
We are proud of our popular Envisioning the Purple Line Series of events we host free of charge to all participants and audience members. In August, Purple Line NOW pivoted from an in-person event to a Zoom webinar and were happily surprised at the enthusiastic response to this new format with nearly 140 participants. Along with elected officials and developers from both counties, we invited MTA to give a timely status update. We are currently planning the next webinar for winter 2021, so stay tuned!
Finally, we are thrilled that many of you find our widely-read bi-weekly newsletter informative and engaging. We can’t believe we have published 60 editions of the Purple Line NEWS to date! Our newsletter is published every other week, typically on Wednesdays. Let us know if there is a topic you would like to see covered in the future.
A reminder: Purple Line NOW does not receive underwriting grants from any source, government (local or otherwise), nor are we a membership organization (we do not ask for annual dues). We operate solely on donations from individuals and businesses like you who care about the Purple Line and whose generosity allow us to continue our work each year. Remember, with your donation, your name (or your business name) will be listed on our website, as well as in event literature and signage for a year following your donation.
You can easily donate by clicking on the button below.
DONATE TODAY!
We appreciate your kindness and generosity, both financially and otherwise. A great big thank you to our anonymous donor whose dedication to the project through this matching grant will make it easier for all our donors to have a significant positive impact on the work we do.
Thank you!
Purple Line NOW
Purple Line NOW News - November 25, 2020
Purple Line NOW News will be back with a full edition in its next newsletter with reviews of the most recent Community Advisory Team meetings, an update on yesterday's settlement, and progress being made along the corridor. For today, a Thanksgiving message from Purple Line NOW's Board President:
Purple Line NOW is appreciative of all who are working to make the Purple Line a reality.
Although the project experienced some serious setbacks, we are incredibly thankful that the Governor and Purple Line Transit Partners were able to come to an agreement to continue the partnership and move the project forward.
We appreciate Matt Pollack’s leadership of the MTA team, Acting Project Director Vernon Hartsock’s detailed supervision of the work, Gary Witherspoon’s continuation of the Community Advisory Teams, and all those building the project, as we head into a difficult construction season.
Purple Line NOW is working to support these efforts, and to find relief for those, especially small businesses whose difficulties have been worsened by the delay. And we are mindful of those many who are foregoing their shortened commutes and other conveniences which will be provided by the Purple Line when it is completed.
Ralph Bennett, Board President
We also want to leave you with a few photos from all the work that is currently being done throughout our Purple Line communities.
Deck Placement - University Boulevard at Northwest Branch
Installation of Floodplain - Paint Branch
Mud Mat - Veterans Parkway
Sewer Bypass Installation - Wayne Avenue
Welding Form Brackets - Veterans Parkway
Breaking News, Settlement Reached!
We’ll have more to say later, but for now, here is the Maryland Department of Transportation's press release announcing that “the State of Maryland and its partners – Meridiam, Star America and Fluor - today have reached a $250 million agreement that settles all outstanding financial claims and terminates the current litigation between the parties regarding the Purple Line project.”
We are glad to see that this matter has been settled and that all parties involved can get back to building the Purple Line!
Fluor is leaving the consortium and so Maryland will continue to manage the construction while the process for finding a new "Design and Build" contractor moves forward. There are many details yet to come, but a negotiated outcome between Maryland and the Purple Line Transit Partners was always the fastest way back on track and we are most thankful.
Purple Line NOW News - November 11, 2020
In today's edition of Purple Line NOW News, here's what you'll find:
- Highlights from the Greater Lyttonsville/Woodside Community Advisory Team Meeting
- Art-In-Transit Update
- Photos from Around the Purple Line Corridor
Happy Veterans Day to all of the men and women who have served in the United States Armed Forces! We here at Purple Line NOW honor your sacrifice and service.
PURPLE LINE NEWS AND EVENTS |
Community Advisory Team Fall Meeting Schedule
These are the remaining Community Advisory Teams (CAT) meetings for this fall:
- November 17, Silver Spring, 6:30 pm
- December 1, University Boulevard, 6:30 pm
- December 8, Bethesda, 6:30 pm
- December 15, Riverdale Park/Glenridge/New Carrollton, 6:30 pm
- December 17, Long Branch, 6:30 pm
Please Help Us Continue Our Work!
You'll be receiving an email in the next few weeks asking you to consider giving to Purple Line NOW (or renewing your annual contribution). As you know, we don't hold fundraisers, but instead rely on contributions from individuals and businesses to help us bring you information about the project via our newsletter and public fora, which are always free to the public. We attend meetings, like the one you'll read about below, and stay on top of as much construction news as we can to bring you the latest as the project chugs along toward completion.
We hope you will consider supporting Purple Line NOW at whatever level you are most comfortable - all donations are very much appreciated! The black DONATE button below will take you directly to our donation page.
We will publicize your name (or your organization’s name) on our website and at our events as a way of thanking you and letting the community know how much you care about seeing this project finally become a reality. We appreciate all donations, small or large. Thank you, thank you!
DONATE
CONSTRUCTION NEWS TO KNOW |
Greater Lyttonsville/Woodside Community Advisory Team Meeting
Many of our board and team members belong to a Community Advisory Team (CAT) for their area and regularly attend the CAT meetings when they are held. As we have done before, we will be bringing you some highlights from each of the meetings, which have begun this past week for the fall schedule. We encourage you to view the entire presentation at the MTA MDOT website.
If you would like to read an overview of where the project stands and what the short-term and long-term plans are moving forward, please see the October 28, 2020 edition of Purple Line NEWS, where we provide an overview a briefing from MTA MDOT.
The Greater Lyttonsville/Woodside CAT meeting was held last Thursday, November 5, 2020. The stations covered in this segment include Lyttonsville and 16th Street/Woodside.
Gary Witherspoon, MDOT MTA Public Outreach & Communications Deputy Project Director, Matthew Pollack, Executive Director, Transit Development and Delivery, and Vernon G. Hartsock, Acting Project Director submitted the presentation.
Matthew Pollack is a Professional Engineer (PE) with over 30 years of light and heavy rail experience. Matt was raised in Montgomery County and currently lives in Prince George’s County. Vernon Hartsock is the Acting Project Director, with 28 years of MDOT MTA experience, and oversaw the design and construction of numerous MDOT MTA capital projects.
The team reported that outside of the P3 Agreement, some of the project activities are continuing:
- Polk Street Maintenance Facility
- Ken-Gar wetlands restoration
- Paint Branch stream restoration
- Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission’s 66” waterline relocation
In the meantime, as the team is evaluating construction activities and which ones might resume, MDOT MTA is “coordinating the work gaps presented by the departure of the PLTC.”
- Project funding is in place.
- The long-term plan is still under development.
- Community collaboration remains critical to project success.
The group has encouraged the community to provide input, attend meetings, and send in questions, so they not only know where problem areas are located, but also, as they move forward, what priorities respective communities would like to see.
In the past two months, MDOT MTA and the contractors have been working together to continue:
- Manufacturing light rail vehicles and other key project components, including electrical components, and special trackwork;
- Completing final construction designs for stormwater management and intelligent transportation systems across the alignment.
As mentioned, starting with a select few locations, they are also "directing the resumption of on-site construction along the alignment." They said that, "as contractors come online, the volume of work will increase." Here are some of the contractors the presentation highlighted and what they are currently doing:
- Pessoa Construction Company – Water and sewer utility relocations and concrete work
- Henkels & McCoy – Gas and overhead power relocations
- M. C. Dean – Systems and electrical work
- Empire Landscaping – Erosion and sediment control maintenance
- Traffic Engineering Services – Maintenance of traffic support
In the short-term (over the next six months), plans are to continue watermain relocations and retaining wall construction. In the long term, throughout the next year, crews will be continuing work to relocate utilities, construct crash walls, and work on the Talbot Avenue and Lyttonsville Place bridges.
Watermain Relocation -- Wayne at Fenton in Silver Spring
Questions can be submitted to MDOT MTA until tomorrow (November 12) for this particular CAT meeting by emailing them to [email protected]. If you miss this deadline or have questions about other areas of the project, feel free to send them to us here at Purple Line NOW ([email protected]) and we will do our best to get an answer for you or connect you to the right people.
Art-In-Transit Update
According to the presentation, 16 of 22 art-in-transit contracts have been fully executed. Eight of the 16 are in Montgomery County, for the following stations listed:
- Connecticut Avenue
- Lyttonsville Station (2 artists)
- Silver Spring Metro
- Silver Spring Library
- Dale Drive
- Long Branch
- Piney Branch
Photos from Around the Purple Line Corridor
Sewer Relocation -- Kenilworth Avenue
Asphalt Resurfacing -- Riverdale Road
Conduit Ductbank Installation -- Veterans Parkway
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