Purple Line mezzanine costs soar to $52M, impacting Montgomery County transport plans

Montgomery County officials said it’s possible some transportation projects will have to be delayed in the county to help cover the price of a new mezzanine for the Purple Line, which is now expected to cost more than 20 times the original estimate.

As the Washington Post first reported earlier this week, the cost estimate for a mezzanine that is to be built at the Bethesda Metro station has ballooned from an initial estimate of $2.4 million to $52 million dollars.

There is currently only one mezzanine at the Bethesda Metro station. It includes faregates and a station manager’s booth, and it connects to separate escalators/elevators that riders can use either to travel to the Metrorail platform or to the street above.

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The current mezzanine is on top of the north end of the Bethesda Metro station; the future second mezzanine will be built on top of the south end of the station platform and will have an elevator that connects to a future Purple Line station, which will be along Elm Street in downtown Bethesda.

“I don’t think we were fooled that that was going to be the number,” MCDOT Director Chris Conklin said about the initial $2.4 million estimate in an interview with 7News Wednesday. “We programmed additional resources over the last few years to cover some of the gap, but we are surprised by the current price and the level of escalation that reflects.”

Several years ago county officials said they expected the final cost to increase to $25 million, but they never expected the final cost to be more than double the price.

Conklin said some county transportation projects may need to be delayed because of how unexpectedly high the cost of the new Bethesda mezzanine has become, but he added that the county is working with MDOT and is confident the situation will work out so construction can continue.

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“It’s going to be difficult to find the resources to finish the work, but I’m confident all the parties involved will do that,” Conklin said.

Metro is actually building the new mezzanine, which in addition to connecting to the future Purple Line will provide all Metrorail riders with a new southern entrance to the Bethesda station.

“We have been collaborating closely with our partners in Maryland as we work to build the second entrance at their request,” said a statement from Metro. “The state of Maryland has agreed to reimburse all construction costs incurred as part of this project.”

Spokespersons for MDOT and the Purple Line project did not respond to requests for comment on the New Year’s Day holiday.

The Purple Line will be a 16-mile light rail system that will run between Bethesda in Montgomery County and New Carrollton in Prince George’s County. There will be 21 stations, including stations close to not just Bethesda but also the Silver Spring, College Park, and New Carrollton Metro stations.

The Purple Line was originally expected to begin service in 2022, but instead, the projected opening is still almost three years away. The project is also more than $4 billion over budget. One of the many problems that have led to the overruns and delays is a decision by a contractor to walk off the job, which delayed the project by several years.

“It’s been way too long and way too much money,” said county executive Marc Elrich during an online press conference Tuesday in which he was asked about the Bethesda mezzanine situation. “This is really disturbing. It’s going to be very expensive. And I still question some of the decisions they made with construction that will make it more difficult for everybody else to navigate the roads than it should be.”