People who ride the T-Third line through the Central Subway will be relegated to bus service between late February and mid-March, as SFMTA fixes the subway's water leak issues that they once had to address with red plastic beer pong cups.

One of the more embarrassing aspects of the now two-year-old Chinatown Central Subway — well, other than it opening four years behind schedule and $300 million over budget — was that the subway tunnels initially had a water draining problem that Muni had to fix with red Solo cups. The beer pong cups were just an interim solution and were replaced with real plumbing within a few days. But still, honestly.  

It's not clear whether this is the same water drainage issue, but apparently there are still water leaks in the Central Subway. And so the Chronicle reports that the Central Subway will be shut down for a little more than two weeks, starting in late February, in order to repair these leaks.

“We will be doing work to stop the water that’s been seeping into the tunnel and causing water damage,” interim SF Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) Julie Kirschbaum said at the agency’s board meeting Tuesday, per the Chronicle. “This work is really important to make sure that this valuable investment” continues to operate sustainably.

The underground tunnel is slated to be shut down between February 26 and March 14. The Chronicle describes this as a shutdown of a “key segment of Central Subway,” but by our eyes, this looks like the whole underground part of the Central Subway will be closed. The closure will run from the Fourth and Brannan street station to the Chinatown-Rose Pak station, so that’s the whole Central Subway. But the T-Third trains will still be running its Mission Bay, Dogpatch, and Bayview routes.

T-Third riders will get replacement bus service connecting the closed station stops up to Chinatown. And the T-Third will still be in operation, though its underground service will be going through the Market Street tunnel instead of the normal Central Subway route during the two-and-a-half week closure period.

On top of all that, Chinatown will be losing four parking spaces on Washington Street starting February 3, so crews can use those spaces as a construction staging area. It is not disclosed how long those parking spaces will be unavailable. Once the closures go into effect in late February, Muni says they will have “ambassadors” to explain the whole rigamarole to confused riders.

Related: Take A Look at Your New Muni Subway Map — With Central Subway Starting Some Service Saturday [SFist]

Image: Pi.1415926535 via Wikimedia Commons