A Year Late, Contractor Eyes Spring Completion for King Street Metro Access Improvement Project

The infamously troubled King Street-Old Town Metro Access Improvement Project could finish in the next few months after a full year of delays.

The city said the first phase of the project is still reportedly on track for the spring 2021 timeline established last March, when the project was originally supposed to be completed.

The contractor for the project is Fort Myer Construction Corporation (FMCC), and officials haven’t been shy about calling the contractor out for dropping the ball on the project.

“That contractor doing that work has failed the city in a variety of ways,” Mayor Justin Wilson said in a recent town hall. “We’re pursuing all options to make sure that contractor adheres to their obligations under that contract and makes the taxpayers of the city whole for the delay and for the failures of that contract. It’s a bad contractor experience and going to do everything we can to ensure the tax payers of the city and get that project done.”

Lydia Durand, a management analyst with the Department of Project Implementation, acknowledged the project’s troubled history but said that staff are overseeing the contractor’s work.

“This project has been a challenge and the contractor continues to be behind schedule,” Durand said. “FMCC’s latest schedule indicates that they will achieve substantial completion this Spring. Staff continue to closely oversee the contractor’s work to ensure the City receives the project to the quality level required by the contract.”

The goal of the project is to add capacity and new safety measures to the often crowded bus loop, where a woman was fatally struck in 2010.