WMATA Yellow Line Tunnel Rehabilitation Wins Project of the Year
We’re pleased to share that the WMATA Yellow Line Tunnel Rehabilitation Project has been named UCA’s 2025 Project of the Year at the Rapid Excavation and Tunneling Conference (RETC) in Dallas, Texas!
Led by contractor, Kiewit Infrastructure Co., and designers, RK&K and Schnabel Engineering, and owned by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), this project focused on rehabilitating two 1,500-foot-long steel-lined tunnels originally constructed over 40 years ago. The goal: restore the structural integrity of the tunnels and extend their service life by another 50 years.
Schnabel Engineering was proud to serve as the Engineer of Record for the tunnel structural repair. Matthew Goff, Stephen Miller, Akmal Daniyarov, and John Healy led inspection and design efforts for Schnabel on the project.
“The WMATA Yellow Line Tunnel Repair project was a unique opportunity to collaborate with design and construction partners using CMAR delivery method on a challenging rehabilitation involving structural repairs, leak mitigation, and corrosion protection systems,” says design lead, Matthew Goff,.
Schnabel led the tunnel inspection program to identify areas of repairs and developed the final design of the tunnel rehabilitation. Our scope included:
- Tunnel inspection and non-destructive testing
- Structural design of steel liner repairs
- Development of a leak mitigation program
- Instrumentation and monitoring to track performance during active train operations
- Finite element modeling and structural analysis
- Corrosion protection and grouting strategies
This award recognizes the hard work and collaboration of the entire project team and celebrates innovation and excellence in tunnel rehabilitation. Congratulations to our partners at Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), Kiewit, and RK&K!