In a MARC-related update that happily doesn’t concern weather delays or emergency track work, the Maryland Transit Administration today announced commuters traveling the system’s Penn Line will be looking at an all-new station at BWI Airport in 14 months.
Construction work begins next Monday, Aug. 27. The project carries a price tag of nearly $4.8 million, to be paid to Baltimore-based Kimball Construction Company. The Maryland Board of Public Works, helmed by Gov. Larry Hogan, approved the deal in February.
In addition to an expanded waiting area, new facilities for ticketing and concessions and three new restrooms, renovations will also include re-doing the stop’s interior and façade, adding new windows, sidewalks, a taxi drop-off stand and a “rain garden,” replacing the roof and upgrading HVAC, plumbing and electrical systems, according to board documents.
The project is 80 percent federally funded, with the remaining 20 percent coming from Maryland’s Transportation Trust Fund.
MDOT MTA’s MARC train director, Andrea Farmer, said in a statement Wednesday that the renovated stop will be “not only a more aesthetically pleasing station, but a much more functional facility to best meet the needs of our riders.”
MARC, Amtrak and bus service will continue during renovations.
For the next year-plus, passengers will arrive at a temporary station equipped with a ticketing facility, a waiting area and restrooms. A separate MTA advisory issued this week says the fill-in station “will be smaller than the current station with restrooms located in a separate structure,” and a new walkway will be added to connect to the train platform.
