U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and other elected leaders broke ground Tuesday on a major construction project that will see a new rail bridge built between D.C. and Arlington, Va.
The project will repair the Long Bridge, which is more than 100 years old. With two lanes of track and shared by freight and passenger trains, it’s become a major bottleneck for rail service on the East Coast.
The new bridge will be constructed adjacent to the existing bridge, a 119-year-old river crossing that currently operates at 98% capacity during peak periods and will relieve one of the largest rail traffic bottlenecks on the East Coast, according to the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority. Further, the new bridge will aid the state in separating passenger rail from freight rail, improving the on-time performance for both.
Nearly 6 million people ride over the bridge every year, according to the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority. At a news conference held before the groundbreaking ceremony, Buttigieg said these improvements will allow for more Amtrak and Virginia Railway Express service in the future.
“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. “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.”
The $2 billion project is being partly funded by $729 million awarded from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed by Congress in 2021.
A new pedestrian bridge, which will connect East Potomac Park to both the Mount Vernon Trail and the Long Bridge Aquatics and Fitness Center, will also be built next to the new rail bridge.
Construction for the whole project is set to be completed by 2030.
Source: The Virginia Passenger Rail Authority, WTOPnews
