Federal employees in the Washington, DC area have to change their commutes while the Washington Metro Area Transit Authority does construction.

Federal employees make up a sizeable portion of Washington, D.C. metro ridership, especially in areas that have been impacted by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s summer construction projects that have closed blue and yellow line stations south of Regan National Airport.

WMATA began closures at the Braddock Road, King Street, Eisenhower Avenue, Huntington, Van Dorn Street and Franconia-Springfield stations May 25, and those stations will remain closed until September 8.

And while WAMATA is offering busses from the closed stops to operational stations, federal employees have still seen an impact to their commutes.

According to 2015 statistics released by WMATA, federal employees make up 40 percent of riders in Fairfax County, Virginia and just over 30 percent of riders in Arlington County, Virginia — the two regions most heavily impacted by the construction.

In total, approximately 136,000 federal employees participate in the WMATA SmartBenefits program, which enables employees to get transportation benefits through their employer.

The Office of Personnel Management has encouraged agencies to offer flexibilities for employees impacted by the station shutdowns, but some agencies still maintain restrictions on flexibilities like telework that can limit the amount of benefit they provide.

Jessie Bur covers federal IT and management.

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