CASE STUDY

Washington Metro Purple Line Silver Springs, Maryland

HISTORY Many of the suburbs of Washington, D.C. trace their roots to summer homes of the politicians of the time. The Blair, Lee, Jalloh and Barrie families were all very politically active, and are tied to the Silver Springs, MD area where the Blair family built their summer mansion that would stand for over 100 years.

The suburbs grew over the years, and by the 1950s, Silver Springs was the second busiest retail market between Baltimore and Richmond. In 1961, a two-mile segment of I-495, known as the Capital Beltway, was opened to traffic, with the final 64-mile segment open in 1964.

The Washington Metro Red Line rail service into Washington, D.C. opened a station in Silver Springs in 1978, running between the B&O Metropolitan’s eastbound and westbound lines. Silver Springs is also serviced by the Brunswick Line of the Maryland Area Regional Commuter (MARC) train, Metrobus, and RideOn. Furthermore, the bus terminal at the Silver Spring Rail Station is the busiest in the entire Washington Metro Area, with nearly 60,000 passengers daily.

PROBLEM With suburban sprawl comes transportation issues, and the cities around the Washington, D.C. area were no different. Silver Springs, Bethesda, New Carrollton, and College Park were all in need of reliable, high speed transportation to and from D.C.

A new transit line, the Purple Line, was proposed. The line will run along the streets, with some portions either elevated or below grade, as needed depending on the topography of the surrounding areas. Because the line will cut through many cities, disruption

Unmatched Product Range Material Availability Manufacturing Capabilities Innovative Applications and Engineering Expertise CASE STUDY Washington Metro Purple Line

Glenmont RED LINE Shady Grove Woodside/16th St Wheaton Rockville Lyttonsville Forest Glen

Twinbrook Silver SilverSpringDale Spring Transit DriveManchester Library LongCenter Branch Place Connecticut Piney Branch Road

White Flint Riggs Road Ave Adelphi/West Campus MARC - Camden Line

Grosvenor East Campus Takoma Park Greenbelt

Georgia Ave Takoma/LangleyTransit Center College Park-U of Md Medical Center CampusCenter Petworth M Square Bethesda Fort Totten Prince George’s Plaza Riverdale Park Friendship Heights West Hyattsville TenleytownVan Ness Beacon Heights Cleveland Park MARC - Penn Line Columbia Heights Brookland Woodley Park-Zoo Annapolis Road/ Dupont Circle Glenridge Wiehle-Reston East U Street Montgomery County SILVER LINE Rhode Island Ave District of Columbia Farragut North New Carrollton Spring Hill Shaw- Howard U Landover Greensboro McPherson Sq New York Ave Mt Vernon Cheverly Tysons Corner Sq-7th St

McLean GWU Union Deanwood Rosslyn Station Metro Center Judiciary Minnesota Ave ORANGE LINE Foggy Bottom-Farragut West Square Federal Triangle GalleryPlace Smithsonian Stadium-Armory Potomic River Potomac Ave Benning Rd Capital HeightsAddison MorganRd BlvdLargo Town Center Archives Clarendon Eastern market Ballston-MU Court House Federal CenterCapital South East Falls ChurchVirginia Sq-GMU Vienna/Fairfax-GMU Arlington Cemetery Dunn Loring-Merrifield L’EnfantPlaza West Falls Church-VT/UVA

Washington Transit Map

of normal traffic flow during excavation had to Line lobby entrance in the site that required be kept to a minimum. One of the excavation the deepest excavation. The beams, many of PROJECT PARTNERS sites required a depth of 150 feet. which were supplied with fabricated tie points, Owner were also used as soldier beam support in the Maryland Transit Administration entrance and exit of the tunneling operation. SOLUTION General Contractor Throughout the 16.2 mile project site, wide The Purple Line Transit Constructors (PLTC), Purple Line Transit Constructors – flange beams are being used as retaining walls, made up of Flour, Lane, and Traylor Bros, Inc. Riverdale, MD some with shear studs attached for cast-in- partnered with Nucor Skyline for their place concrete facing. expertise in deep excavation shoring with wide PRODUCT flange beams. To date, PLTC has purchased The Purple Line will allow travelers to move Wide Flange Beams: W14x109 through over 2,000 tons of wide flange beams, all between the Maryland branches of the Red, W27x258 (2,000 tons) produced in Nucor-Yamato’s Blytheville, AR Green, and Orange lines of the Washington mill. These beams, ranging in size from Metro without needing to ride into central PROJECT TIME FRAME W14x109 through W27x258, are being used Washington, D.C. and will also offer transfers to 2017 and continuing in many different capacities. The versatility of all three lines of the MARC commuter rail system. wide flange beams is what makes this a great product in projects of this magnitude.

Nucor Skyline wide flange beams were used as soldier beam support to connect a passenger transfer walkway to the elevators in the Purple

Skyline Steel, LLC For technical questions and engineering support, please contact us via our technical 888.450.4330 www.nucorskyline.com hotline at: 1-866-875-9546 or email us at: [email protected].