By Staff

Virginia officials last week broke ground on the more than $2 billion rehabilitation and expansion of the railway Long Bridge over the Potomac River connecting Arlington to Washington, D.C.

A new two-track bridge will run adjacent to the existing two-track rail bridge, nearly 120 years old, according to Virginia Passenger Rail Authority. The expanse is used by freight trains, Amtrak passenger trains, and Virginia Railway Express commuter services, according to a news release from Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-7th.

She attended the Oct. 16 groundbreaking in Arlington for the new bridge along with U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, both D-Virginia, U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Virginia, Virginia Passenger Rail Authority, local officials, and Virginia workers.

“Rarely in the United States will you find a single piece of infrastructure on which so many people depend every single day,” Buttigieg said at the groundbreaking, reported WTOP News. “A more modern structure and updated capacity are going to be vital to sustain that level of traffic, and we’re going to have a lot more coming.”

Once completed, the current Long Bridge expanse will be dedicated primarily to freight, and the new bridge to passenger trains.

The work is part of Transforming Rail in Virginia Phase 2 projects, which received $729 million in federal funding in the bipartisan infrastructure law.

According to DOT, the Transforming Rail in Virginia program is expected to create more than 36,000 jobs.

“Infrastructure Week used to be a running joke on Capitol Hill,” said Spanberger in a statement. “When we finally passed historic bipartisan legislation to make smart investments in our physical infrastructure, we knew it would have a real impact on Virginians — like those I represent up and down the I-95 corridor who take Amtrak and VRE to get where they’re going.

“This groundbreaking is yet another example of the real ways in which the bipartisan infrastructure law continues to deliver for Virginians and make good on the promise of investing in our communities. This new bridge will make sure that the millions of Virginians who travel across the Long Bridge can rely on rail,” said the congresswoman.

The new two-track railroad bridge will allow for expansion of rail service to meet future demand, according to Virginia Passenger Rail Authority. Site prep will begin over the next few weeks with large-scale construction beginning in 2025. The project is scheduled for completion in 2030.

“In Virginia, our crippling traffic has truly become a bipartisan issue, and the Long Bridge groundbreaking represents our bipartisan solution,” said DJ Stadtler, executive director of the VPRA. “But it’s not just Virginians who will benefit. Travelers from Boston to Miami will feel the effects of this project, and through our Transforming Rail in Virginia initiative, VPRA’s capital investments will add $7.2 billion to our economy.”

Transforming Rail calls for moving Virginians by using an existing rail corridor and building new infrastructure. When complete, the initiative will enable the state’s Amtrak Virginia service to offer a total of 13 daily roundtrips up from eight currently, traveling throughout the state and connecting to the Northeast Corridor, according to VPRA.