Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority metrorail specifications

The WMATA Metrorail Specifications collection is so named because the bulk of the collection is technical specifications and contracts related to the construction of Metrorail. The collection consists of unbound letter-size documents, bound letter-size reports and specifications, oversize reports and specifications, blueprints, and the WMATA website.

The collection is an artificial one, consisting of several distinct and unrelated types of documents. The earliest documents date from 1962, and were generated by the WMATA's predecessor agency, the NCTA. Most of these deal with highway development. The bulk of the material dates from 1972-78 and contains of a distinct series of oversize and letter-size bound volumes. These volumes are contract specifications for different sections of Metrorail tunnels, and each bears the name of the contractor that won the bid, as well as the contract number. The collection's third district group of documents consists of minutes of meetings, and related documents, generated by meetings of the Board of Directors and with individual contractors.

The collection's Reports and, especially, Specifications series are highly technical engineering documents. They are valuable for their comprehensive engineering detail and descriptions, through which the evolution, design and construction of the Metro system can be studied in detail. Not all routes, nor all sections along one route, are covered in the available contract specifications. The meeting minutes are valuable for their insight into administrative planning. However, the Board of Directors minutes are present (and presumed complete) only for 1971 and 1974, and the contractor meeting minutes are incomplete for the years covered, namely 1972 through 1978, with several months missing altogether.

Researchers are also advised that six titles, removed from the Metrorail Specifications Collection, have been processed elsewhere as shelved items. Consult library indexes for these titles. The are: "New York City Transit Authority Invitation to Contractors" for Contracts C-213-1 through C-213-3; Contract R-30-A; Contract R-33; and Contract R-40; "District of Columbia Department of Highways and Traffic, Standard Specifications for Highways and Structures", 1974; and "State of Maryland, State Roads Commission, Specifications for Materials, Highways, Bridges, and Incidental Structures", March 1968.