By Cameron Delean
U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg joined a cadre of federal lawmakers Tuesday to celebrate the groundbreaking of the highly-touted Long Bridge Project in Arlington.
Buttigieg was joined by U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, Congressman Gerry Connolly, Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger, Executive Director of Virginia Passenger Rail Authority DJ Stadtler and other stakeholders for the ceremony.
The $2.3 billion Long Bridge Project will create a four-track corridor and make nearly two miles of rail improvements over land and the Potomac River. The current Long Bridge operates only two tracks and is more than a century old.
“Passenger ridership is on the rise, and capacity is virtually maxed out at peak hours … 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,” Buttigieg said. “Supporting the economic growth that’s happening in this region requires us to make investments that should have been made a long time ago.”
As part of the Transforming Rail in Virginia Phase 2 projects, the Long Bridge Project will construct a new two-track bridge between Arlington and Washington that will run adjacent to the existing bridge. The existing Long Bridge is primarily used by freight trains, Amtrak passenger trains and Virginia Railway Express commuter services.
Once completed, the four-track corridor will allow for the separation of passenger and freight rail — allowing the current bridge to be dedicated primarily to freight, while the new bridge will provide passenger services.
“We’re not just connecting the East Coast, but really taking a major step toward America having a better connected, more robust passenger rail system,” Buttigieg said.
According to the Department of Transportation, the program is expected to create more than 36,000 jobs.
Last December, Spanberger, Warner, Kaine, Connolly, Rep. Don Beyer and Rep. Jennifer McClellan held an event along with local officials and Virginia Go.v Glenn Youngkin to announce $729 million in federal funding for the Transforming Rail in Virginia Phase 2 projects. In addition to supporting the completion of a new Long Bridge, the spending will make improvements to L’Enfant Station and lay a third track along key sections of the corridor in Prince William, Stafford and Spotsylvania counties.
“I represent people who rely on passenger rail to get back and forth to work, and it will be transformative and really life-changing for us to know that we will have millions of Virginians who will be able to travel across Long Bridge on Amtrak on VRE to get where they want to go and do so on time,” Spanberger said. “It was a running joke on Capitol Hill for so long, that infrastructure week was going to come. Well, when it finally came … we knew we were making a major impact for our constituents.”
The improvements intend to help alleviate current bottlenecks, expand capacity and improve reliability for commuters, travelers and freight. The projects will expand Amtrak and Virginia Railway Express services between Washington and North Carolina. The funding was awarded through the Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail Grant Program.
“The improvements to Long Bridge and this corridor are going to make it dramatically easier for me to get to D.C. for the 36 weeks a year where we’re active in the United States Senate. But I don’t feel bad about being selfish, because so many others are going to benefit from this,” Kaine said.
The project is currently in its final design phase, with construction expected to begin at the end of this year and be completed in 2030.
“In Virginia, our crippling traffic has truly become a bipartisan issue, and the Long Bridge groundbreaking represents our bipartisan solution,” Stadtler said. “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.”