Community Advisory Group (CAG) Meeting #6: Arlington and Alexandria Projects   11/9/2026

Good afternoon and welcome to the sixth Community Advisory Group meeting for rail improvement projects in Arlington and Alexandria.

These meetings are hosted jointly by Virginia Railway Express and the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority.

This CAG, as you likely know, is designed to maintain ongoing collaboration and communication with community leaders throughout Arlington and Alexandria, and we meet on a quarterly basis.

We greatly appreciate you being here, participating, and providing feedback.

Next slide, please.

Today's agenda covers all of our VPRA and VRE rail projects in Arlington and Alexandria, including the Long Bridge projects, Alexandria Fourth Track, Crystal City Station, Alexandria Station, and the King and Commonwealth Bridges Replacement Project.

At the end of today's meeting, we hope you will take a brief survey to provide us with feedback on how we can improve these meetings going forward.

Next slide.

Hi, good afternoon.

My name is Naomi Klein.

I am with the Long Bridge project team.

And I am Meredith Judy.

Good afternoon.

My name is Scott Crumley.

I'm the design manager for the Long Bridge project.

Yeah, my name is Brian Breese.

I am the Senior Project Manager here for Long Bridge Rail Partners.

Sarah Hoover with BPRA.

Good afternoon.

I'm Jason Bortz with VRE.

All right.

Thank you, team.

Next slide, please.

Naomi will lead us off with a Long Bridge Project overview and DC-specific construction progress before we move into the Arlington and River portion of the Long Bridge Project.

Sure.

Sure.

So this slide is really about who is the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority.

So we are an independent state entity, much like a port authority.

So rather than report to the governor, we report to a 15-member board of directors, many of which are appointed by the governor.

And we were formed in 2020.

We are not a rail operator, so we do not run trains.

Rather, we are responsible for completing projects within railroad right-of-way that allow us to add more passenger rail service.

So there was a landmark deal that was done in 2019 with CSX that allowed for VPRA to be formed where Virginia

bought a lot of land from that private freight company.

And that has allowed us to do a number of projects between DC and Richmond, one being the Long Bridge project.

And the goal is to increase both Amtrak inner city passenger rail service as well as VRE commuter rail service.

Go to the next slide, please.

So that brings us to the Long Bridge Project, which is VPRA's northernmost project between DC and Richmond.

You are going to hear from VRE about the Longbond Station Project.

They are the project.

They are the lead on that project.

But for the Long Bridge Project, hopefully everyone on this call is familiar with that.

In case this is your first time, I'm going to give a very quick overview.

So the purpose of this project is that south of the Potomac River, you have three railroad tracks running south through Alexandria.

North of this project, you have three tracks that run up to Union Station.

And then starting at Union Station, you have four tracks that run all the way up through the Northeast Corridor.

So if you've ever taken a train from Union Station up to New York City, you know they come frequently.

and they're pretty available, accessible and affordable.

And but the issue is right at the Potomac River, it necks down into a single two track bridge.

And so that essentially creates a pinch point, not just within the region, but on the entire East Coast.

I like to say if you're getting your orange juice from Florida, it's coming across this two track bridge.

So during the very initial studies of this, it was found that this bridge was at 98 percent capacity.

It's shared by CSX, Amtrak, and VRE.

So all three of those rail operators run across this two-track bridge.

It was at 90% capacity.

And so what the Long Bridge project is going to do is double that capacity.

by adding another two tracks to the existing two tracks.

And then where there is not room, we'll be removing the existing two tracks and building four tracks.

But what you will end up with is a continuous four-track corridor all the way to Union Station.

South of the project is the Alexandria fourth-track project, which there will be more talk about that.

I'm not going to get into any details.

And then north of us is the L'Enfant project,

All that to say there will be a continuous four track corridor from Arlington, Alexandria, all the way up to Union Station and then up the Northeast.

So for the Long Bridge project, the boundaries of that you're seeing on this map, we start in Arlington right by the Long Bridge Aquatic Center.

That's where we meet with the Alexandria fourth track project.

And then we're going to be building railroad tracks

over the Potomac River, through East Potomac Park, over the Washington Channel and Main Avenue in DC, and then through the Maryland Avenue overbuild, we're going to end just south of L'Enfant Station, where VRE is then going to pick up with their project, which they'll talk a little more about.

Due to the sheer size of this project, while we call it the Long Bridge Project, it's actually five rail bridges and two biker pedestrian bridges.

It is split into two packages for the purposes of construction, a north package, which you see here in yellow, and a south package, which is in purple.

One addition I haven't mentioned is that due to the impacts of the project, we'll be adding a dedicated bike pedestrian bridge over the Potomac River, which will be a really nice addition for the region.

The current connection is about seven and a half feet wide.

So south package is design build, north package is progressive design build,

You can see in the circle charts on the bottom that both teams have essentially completed 90% design.

They're expected to fully finish design by next spring.

And both are under construction.

So north and south package have been in construction both for a little over a year.

North package started a bit earlier.

They're constructing four rail bridges.

And that construction is expected to last through 2030.

And that's when the project is expected to be completed.

Let me go to the next slide.

Okay.

So I'm going to be covering the construction and the traffic updates in DC.

So in this box that you see here, primarily at Main Avenue, which is the critical path for the project.

Go to the next slide.

So if you've been traveling into DC either on I-395 or otherwise, you have likely seen cranes around the main avenue area near the wharf and the tidal basin.

We've been performing micropiles and drilled shafts, and you'd see the construction.

Actually, you can see it in this picture towards the bottom of some new bridge abutment, essentially concrete walls and piers.

So some ongoing activities.

We're going to be continuing that abutment and peer work, continuing to construct retaining walls.

There is going to be a long-term traffic shift that is anticipated in December.

There's already an existing traffic shift that is specific to Main Avenue.

And then there will be another traffic shift.

We essentially have two traffic patterns that we switch between now and 2030.

And so we'll be making one of those shifts in December.

and then erecting the steel spans, which is what you think of when you see a bridge starting December of this year, early next year.

And then we have to take down a pedestrian bridge over Main Avenue.

You can see it in this picture on the left.

It's blue in color.

And we will be putting up a temporary pedestrian bridge before we take that existing bridge down.

It's in the footprint of the new tracks.

And that is anticipated to happen

We will start construction of that temporary pedestrian bridge at the end of this year.

And we expect to complete that by spring of next year.

Go to the next slide, please.

Okay.

And this is some drone video footage at the Maryland Avenue overbuild, where you can see that a CSX train is diving in under the overbuild.

On the left, you're looking at an apartment building called 1331 Maryland Avenue.

On the right is the Potomac Hotel, formerly the Mandarin Oriental or the Salamander.

And on the left of this picture, you can see our cranes and micropile rigs.

They are conducting, they are performing work to install reinforced crash walls.

and also do some support of excavation work for the new tracks that will be built.

You can go to the next slide, please.

Okay, so this is our traffic shift plan that I had previously mentioned.

So we essentially have two traffic patterns on Main Avenue.

This is close to the Washington marina across from the hotel and apartment building that you just saw.

There is what we call a westbound construction phase that impacts the westbound lanes and an eastbound construction phase.

And as you can see from the chart below, we essentially switch back and forth between these two traffic phases between now and 2030.

The reason being that we have to build the main avenue rail bridge piecemeal on one side than the other in order to keep train traffic moving for the duration of construction.

Go to the next slide.

So we are going to be switching from the westbound construction phase into the eastbound construction phase starting as early as December of this year.

Currently, there are two travel lanes westbound.

We will continue to maintain two travel lanes westbound.

They'll just be shifted in essentially where those westbound lanes are.

There is currently one traveling eastbound.

It will maintain one traveling eastbound, and then we will maintain a pedestrian walkway.

So as far as what the lanes are and the travel is, that will remain the same, but the locations that cars will have to take, that path cars will have to take will shift.

You can go to the next slide.

Okay.

So some construction updates for East Potomac Park.

You may have seen a temporary trestle that was constructed over the Washington Channel.

I think we're going to watch a time-lapse while I talk about it.

That trestle is essentially a low wooden bridge that we will use to place heavy equipment that will allow us to construct the new four-track rail bridge across the Washington Channel.

Once the project is complete, that wooden trestle will then be removed.

So that's the temporary structure.

During the, I think it was about two-week, 10-day to two-week Amtrak outage, which we call pause for progress,

which was work that Amtrak was performing on the First Street Tunnel.

We were able to use that opportunity to install more than 120 piles for the Long Bridge project.

So our project was also able to advance while that work was underway.

Upcoming activities will be continuing the foundation and the bridge work as I described, installing the retaining walls that you saw in the prior video and then continuing utility relocations.

There are many utilities, both in East Potomac Park and under Main Avenue that we have to get out of the way in order to be able to put in the permanent new bridges.

I'm gonna wait for this time-lapse video.

So as you can see, this wooden trestle come across the Washington Channel.

It lands in the Washington marina.

And then once it lands, you can see that it's begun installing those foundations for the new rail bridge.

All right, now we're gonna see some drone footage at Ohio Drive of the work there.

You'll see a wood retaining wall that is holding up the existing tracks.

which provides that support while we conduct the excavation and drive the piles that will be needed for the new rail bridge.

And in this slide, construction update on I-395.

There's going to be a traffic shift southbound for new pier construction and preparation for those abutments.

We are also construct, like I said, there are

for rail bridges.

So one of them is over I-395, which we're able to build offline from the existing two track rail bridge.

And upcoming activities are foundation work for piers and abutments.

We do put out traffic advisories for any traffic shifts on southbound, northbound or southbound I-395.

If you're not signed up, I'm sure we're going to talk about this.

Please sign up for our email alerts.

So then you will see in advance any

Any traffic changes that we expect to be happening on behalf of the project.

Okay, I wanted to make sure I handed off at the right point.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

We'll definitely be here to answer any questions that you may have about the Long Bridge project.

Very good.

Thank you, Naomi.

Again, Brian Breese, happy to give you some construction updates here on what we're doing for the Long Bridge South project.

Go ahead to the next slide, please.

So the Long Bridge Project, the northern limit of the Long Bridge South Project ends just into D.C. where we have our northern abutment along Ohio Drive and East Potomac Park.

So what we've been working on here over the past couple months is working through the driven foundations for the northern abutment for the main river bridge.

We've completed the pile installation.

We're working through

The concreting operation for that abutment right now, we've poured the footing as well as the stem wall.

We have a couple of pours left to complete that abutment.

After completion of that abutment, the balance of the work on the main river bridge is either on the river or across into the Virginia side of things.

Next slide, please.

As we work on to the river, we're actually just getting going on driving a permanent pile this week on the river.

That's a new activity really getting into the meat and potatoes of the project.

We've been out there over the past several months working through our access and installing mooring piles.

If you're out there on the river, you'll

You'll see lines of large pipe piles sticking out of the water and what they are is mooring piles so that we can safely fleet up our marine equipment in the event of storms or something along those lines or when the barges are not in use and things like that.

Working through the access, working through the installation of mooring piles so that we can safely fleet up our equipment here.

And then in the next couple of days, we're getting into the permanent production pile.

So what you can see in the lower right hand corner is the pile actually being delivered from Houston.

So there's 5 million pounds of pile on that barge.

It was shipped up from Houston on the water.

That was really important.

It was a really important approach to the project to keep all those pile off of the roadways.

Each of those pile, they range in length from about 80 feet to about 105 feet.

They're hard to handle.

They're hard to get on the roads.

Obviously, we're in a heavily congested area.

Keeping those major deliveries off the roadway network here locally was a big component of building this job.

Again, we're going to start to make some noise actually.

The first driven pile on the water will probably start tomorrow.

Over the next six or eight months, we'll drive out all of the production pile for the main river bridge out there from shore to shore.

Next slide.

Again, River Access has been, we've been out here working since last June on scope validation activities and things along those lines.

But as part of that, and over the past year, we've been working on our access.

So if you go into Gravelly Point, you'll see

Roadways built, gravel roadways built, staging areas built.

We have constructed bulkheads off of both the Virginia shoreline as well as the DC shoreline.

And those access points give us the ability to get material on and off the water, to get labor on and off the water.

and also to get our equipment on the water.

So those large cranes that you see out there on the water, they're constructed on land and we have to walk them from land onto a barge.

So those bulkheads give us the ability to get the materials, manpower and equipment safely.

Looking forward a little bit here over the next week or so, we're going to start working on one more access point that has to be constructed and that'll be from the DC side.

We have a short trestle that we have to build.

off of the seawall on the DC side in East Potomac Park and that's going to primarily be used to get material and concrete and things along those lines onto the water so we can we can construct each of the individual piers for the bridge.

Next slide.

All right, I'm working our way across to Virginia.

We've obviously spent a lot of time in the loop ramps there along boundary channel.

We've completed our yard construction with first trailer and it's compound over there in the loop ramps and on the boundary channel loop ramps over there.

We've also been working on auger cast pile insulation adjacent to the Aquatics Center.

So we've been working there for the past few months installing the deep foundations for the south abutment.

which is immediately adjacent to the Aquatic Center right there.

That's the crane that you see in the upper right-hand corner that's been installing the auger cast foundations for that abutment.

Here over the next couple of weeks, we're going to be getting into the concreting operation for that southern abutment.

As we move forward,

We have multiple substructure units, multiple piers that we have to construct on land.

One of them is in the median of GWMP, northbound and southbound, and then on the riverside of GWMP.

And those operations will require some intermittent single-lane closures and some traffic shifts and things like that to be able to safely construct those piers, getting ready for the rail bridge to be erected.

Next slide please.

All right, as many of you may know, one of the big components of our approach over on the riverside of GWMP was a detour for the Mount Vernon Trail.

Obviously, that's a heavily used trail.

The trail network went immediately through our yard area, so there was a lot of interaction between the public users of that trail and our construction activities, so we wanted to separate those as much as possible.

So over the past couple months here since the last meeting we have successfully detoured Mount Vernon Trail away from our construction activities so everybody can remain safe here and using the trail and also our construction team out there.

So far we've gotten some very positive feedback and we have a couple of crossings out there that are being well managed so very very positive results so far

Yeah, just to piggyback on what you're saying, Brian.

We've had some excellent collaborative outreach too, particularly on this Mount Vernon Trail outreach activities.

Both the Washington Area Bicycle Association and the Friends of Mount Vernon Trail joined us in our outreach during the detour implementation.

And the Friends of Mount Vernon Trail posted a video of the new trail construction

and that reached over 300,000 viewers across multiple platforms.

So we really appreciate the partnership in this outreach and all our many outreach efforts for this project.

Next slide, please.

The public outreach activities for the Long Bridge projects have continued throughout the summer and fall.

As I hope everyone knows, we have ongoing public outreach activities that include door to door outreach, tabling,

in our communities, signage and a robust social media and web presence.

We generate weekly traffic advisories that come out through DDOT and through National Park Service and are posted on our VPRA website.

And we have monthly construction eBLAS and quarterly newsletters that go out to our subscribers.

Next slide, please.

Some of the highlights from the last three months include

Participation in the 9-11 Memorial Trail Walk and Bike, which included a presentation of the Long Bridge Project at the Long Bridge Aquatic Center.

And we had some focused outreach this month or last month within the boating community.

In addition to our ongoing monthly digital updates to the boating community, last month, our outreach team visited many of the marinas in the area to make sure that those digital advisories are useful to boaters.

and to the staff at the marinas, and also to confirm that those advisories are being posted and distributed for boat launches that don't have staffing.

We installed temporary signage to make sure that all different types of boaters accessing at a variety of points along the river are aware of the work that we're doing and the impacts that are ongoing and upcoming.

And then finally, we continue to table at events.

within the neighborhoods that are impacted by our construction activities, trying to reach as wide an audience as possible.

Next slide, please.

Our digital outreach successes over the last quarter, we wanted to highlight a few of those for you.

We have over 3,400 subscribers to our e-blast list.

Those individuals receive both our monthly construction updates and our quarterly project newsletters.

Over the last three months, we've had over 65,000 views on our social media platforms.

Our fall newsletter was opened by over 1,500 unique readers, and our videos have received over 4.2 thousand views across our social media platforms and on our YouTube station.

Next slide please.

So we continue to receive inquiries on our email and phone hotlines.

We respond to those promptly.

Important to maintain our credibility by doing that.

We hope that you also feel free to reach out to us as you have questions between meetings.

And then we push out a wide range of content on our social media platforms, as I mentioned, and in our newsletter and our marine advisories.

So now I'll hand over the floor to Sarah Perkins to, excuse me, to Sarah Hoover.

Good afternoon again, everyone.

So Alexandria Fourth Track overview.

This is the approximate like six mile fourth track that's being installed between Long Bridge and the Alexandria VRE station just south of the Long Bridge project.

The intent here is to increase rail capacity and address a bottleneck that currently exists here between both passenger and freight trains that are traveling into DC.

because we have a situation where there are five tracks that converge into three.

This project also has a suite of sub projects that are built within it.

One is the Crystal City Station improvements done by VRE.

Another is the King Street area projects, which include Alexandria Station improvements, King and Commonwealth Railroad bridges, which are both being done by VRE and also city streetscape improvements, which are currently in their planning stage.

And then the

Telegraph Tunnel, which has pedestrian mitigation improvements that are going to be happening as part of the decommissioning of that tunnel.

Next slide.

Just a snapshot of where we currently are with the project.

Recently, we completed the installation of retaining walls that will help support both switches and signals that are being relocated as part of the new track that's being installed.

There also was signal structure installation at Slater's Lane and also crossover work at Slater's Lane.

So whenever you hear that term switch or turnout or crossovers, these are actually locations in the track where the tracks diverge from a single track into the neighboring track or the adjacent track.

You will hear switch and turnout panels used interchangeably.

And then the crossover is two of those turnouts that allow for a full transition from one mainline to another.

For the ongoing work that's occurring right now, we have additional signal work that's going on at Slater's Lane, Four Mile Run, and the Long Bridge Aquatic Center.

There's additional fiber utility relocation that is going on.

And then once that is complete, there will be a cut over of those services to finalize the utility relocation efforts ahead of this project.

And then also there's drainage structure installation going on along the entirety of the corridor to prepare for that new track.

The upcoming work we have scheduled is the turnout panel assembly at Long Bridge Aquatic Center.

You can see the delivery of some of those materials or those panels in the image above that location.

We also have the continued installation of both drainage structures and grading work once the utility work is completed.

And then we are slated to have new fourth track installation begin this month into next month.

Next slide.

So just to touch on a couple of things that have been recently completed or things that you might be seeing out in the field right now.

As I mentioned earlier, we do have retaining wall installation.

This is just some images here where you can see that process occurring out in the field.

So that's when we actually install sheet pile walls to accommodate the expanded rail footprint in locations where we have vertical clearance challenges or where we need to build up material in order to make a level track or a level footprint

We install these sheet piles to account for that work.

These walls help to hold the earth in place and also just make it so that all of the elevations are equitable across the main lines as well.

The completion of these walls allow for the installation of new signal equipment, whether it's the signal bridges, so those large structures that you see go all the way across of the tracks themselves with the signals incorporated into them, and also the fourth track itself.

So in the images here, you can see the crews offloading these piles.

And then the preparation work that goes into them as they're cut to the appropriate size.

And then you can see where they have been drilled in or vibrated in, in this case on the top right image here.

And then once they're all in place, based on the depth that they need to achieve, they will trim those out.

So they create one even wall.

And then they of course will build the structures needed next to it or on top of it.

Next slide.

So as I mentioned earlier, we do have the Slater's Lane signal installation here.

There's the bridge that we talked about earlier, the signal bridge.

As you can see, it goes across all of the tracks.

In fact, there's also space that's been left for the fourth track.

You can see on the larger image here on the right.

The crews, specifically CSX crews, have been out there assembling all of those items and then installing them across the track as needed.

Not just at Slater's Lane, but they'll also be doing this work at the Long Bridge Aquatic Center and also the Control Point RO.

Next slide.

So, regarding the ongoing activities, as I mentioned, utility relocations, we do have additional fiber optic utility relocation that has to occur to accommodate the upcoming track construction.

So currently that fiber is being installed.

It also has to be tested to ensure that it is working correctly or operating correctly.

And once that is done, we will have what is a transfer or called a cut over where we are moving from the previously used fiber optics to the new line that has been installed.

And then certain locations will also be removing that old fiber optic cable as well.

Once they're out of the way, we can begin the entirety of the drainage installation and grading.

We have done some initial work for that, but the utility work is something that has been holding that up.

Once that is done, we can begin the entire corridor in earnest and also begin finally laying new track.

Next slide.

In regards to the drainage and grading for the new track, as you can see, for those of you that are nearby the tracks, I'm sure we are moving a lot of dirt.

A lot of that is to actually install the under drains, as you can see in that center image, nearby Crystal City Station.

This work has been going on specifically at Airport Access Road as well.

Just a lot of earth has been moved in order to level out the track area or the future track area, I should say, for the subgrade to go in and then on top of that, the ballast or rock to go in and then for the track to eventually go in on top of that.

We've also begun staging new rail for the fourth track installation overall.

You can see that in the bottom right image down below.

It's these long ribbons of rail as they're called.

They're 200 feet, if not more, that have been delivered by a rail train.

The intent here is once we finish off the grading and the Ballester Rock installation, these long ribbons of rail can be laid out in the new fourth track configuration and we can begin installing cross ties or those wooden cross ties that you see underneath the rail and begin securing them to build the track in its entirety.

Next slide.

So just what's happening next, specifically looking at a few locations throughout the project.

So over the next three months, we hopefully intend to finish up the utility work and then advance both drainage and grading.

As I mentioned earlier, the signal infrastructure work will continue.

We'll be seeing some increased activity at the Long Bridge Aquatic Center area.

And then of course, the overall construction of the fourth track.

We have been doing some initial truck construction for some

additional sightings or smaller tracks like maintenance of way track further north towards Long Bridge Aquatic Center, but really we'll be getting most of that in earnest in the next month or so.

As you can see here in the map, this just goes into additional details for each location.

So at Long Bridge Aquatic Center, you'll be seeing that switch or turnout installation, the track tie-in prep, which means the new track once it's built,

The tie-in is how we're getting it attached to the additional or the operating main lines.

And the fourth track construction overall at the Crystal City Airport access station, we have the utility cut over the track bed.

So that's that subgrade and ballast stone going in.

And then the fourth track, and then it's Slater's Lane, the completion of the signal switch installation, and then the eventual tie-in for the track work.

We are still maintaining three main points of access at Crystal Drive and 12th Street South.

and Crystal Drive and the Service Road and also Potomac Greens Drive and the Service Road as well.

Next slide.

And just a reminder for the project timeline, we've of course completed our design, our permitting and our property acquisition and we had construction begin and we hope be completed the third quarter of 2028.

Thanks Sarah.

So I'm Jason Bortz with VRE.

I'm the project manager for Crystal City Station and the Alexandria Station project.

Crystal City, for those of you who don't recall particulars on this project, we are relocating the existing station a little bit further south.

So if you are familiar with the area on the right hand side of this image, that's the water park.

The existing station is on the north side of the water park.

So we're just moving it to the south side of the water park.

The green paths on this overview are the entrance locations.

So the one on the right hand side, the northern entrance will come out right about where the tunnel goes under the tracks for the Mount Vernon Trail Connector.

And the south side comes out just on the edge of 2011 Crystal Drive between two of those large buildings there.

The Magenta area is the proposed platform.

Orange going off the bottom of the sheet is the county's separate pedestrian bridge, the CC to DCA project over to the airport.

And we are working with them so that everything will tie in nicely.

And if timing works out perfect, then we're ready to go.

And if it's not, we have some temporary measures that we'll put in place

to keep everything secure on the mezzanine until the separate project gets there.

So moving on to the next slide.

So what are the major things that we're looking to capture with this project?

So we're shifting from a side platform that only has one boarding edge to an island platform that has a boarding edge on either side.

We're also looking to extend the platform

so that we can accommodate eight car train sets, which is our, I'll say our long typical, typically run either a six or an eight car train set.

And if we don't have enough space on the platform, it's not long enough, then folks have to walk between rail cars in order to exit the vehicle or exit the train.

So as far as entrances, we do have that new north entrance.

It's right across the street from the new WMATA entrance.

and next to the Mount Vernon Trail Connector and that south connection will provide enhanced bike and pedestrian connection between the station and the airport once the county completes their CCDCA bridge.

Next slide please.

So right now we are in a little bit of a hover pattern.

We are working on finalizing our permits and things like that.

But we're holding fast, gearing up so that we can be ready right when Fourth Track completes certain work.

Right now, some of the tracks that Sarah was talking about with the Fourth Track project run right through where we want to put our platform.

So we'll be looking to advertise for construction in the coming months so that the contractor is spooled up and ready to go once the work on the Fourth Track project has been

has been completed.

So we'll be looking to be kind of starting construction in late summer to fall of next year, and we'll probably be in construction for about two years.

Next slide, please.

Moving south to our Alexandria Station improvements and King and Commonwealth Railroad Bridge project.

Overview on this one.

is the, on the right hand side, there's the large bright green areas.

Those are the rail bridges over King Street and Commonwealth Avenue.

And the light blue is existing platforms that we're rehabilitating.

Dark blue to purple is additional platform extensions.

Pink is elevators, red's the pedestrian tunnel,

Yellow is the at-grade crossing that we will be closing.

It's a safety hazard.

So it's actually one of our things we're kind of looking most forward to doing with this project is removing that safety hazard.

So if we can go to the next slide, please.

So within the station itself, the predominant things that we're looking to fix are remove that at-grade crossing, improve the track and platform boarding interface.

So what the issue is is that the

The platform is too low next to the track, right?

So if you look at the photo on the left, you can kind of get a sense of how that track is sitting a lot higher.

That's why those yellow step boxes are everywhere, helps folks get on and off the trains.

So we're looking to resolve that issue.

And then also we'll be establishing a proper boarding edge along track one.

Again, looking at that left hand photo, you can see the fence along the back of the platform, even though there's a track right there that

Boarding Edge is so low that we try to avoid using it at all costs.

We actually have a temporary platform out there right now to help with that.

So next slide, please.

So this is focusing on the rail bridge portion of this.

So you could see the green outline is approximately the existing opening and the blue outline is approximately what it will be when it's completed.

King Street gets widened on both sides.

Commonwealth Avenue gets widened on one side.

The city is following on behind us with some streetscape and sidewalk improvements, so we're trying to leave them as clean of a slate as we can so that they can take advantage of that additional space.

Ultimately, this will be a safety improvement in that we'll have wider sidewalks for pedestrians,

There will be a higher bridge.

These bridges, particularly King Street, have a history of being struck by box trucks and things like that.

And ultimately, it will also help reduce maintenance, which will avoid service disruptions both for the rail above and for the roadway below.

Next slide, please.

All right, so where are we?

So here in Q4 of 2026, we are working on micropiles.

Micro Pile Subcontractor arrived on site earlier this week and so they'll be working on that and bridge footings here into the winter as they progress up into the foundation walls in the first quarter and ultimately but we're looking to demo the east bridges sometime in Q3 so the east bridges that's the side closer to WMATA

If you're taking notes at home from previous versions of this meeting, we estimated that that was gonna be probably in Q1 or Q2.

We're now looking at about Q3, but I think a lot of the variables that played into those are behind us, so we should be pretty ready to roll here going forward and keep it on that timeline.

Next slide, please.

All right, so recently completed work.

We completed demolition of the

Track 3 platform south of the station, so Track 3, that's the westernmost track which is on the side that the station building is on.

We completed demolition of the stairwell that ran from the island platform between Tracks 1 and 2 down to King Street.

That has to get rebuilt when we redo the bridge abutments.

As far as ongoing work, working on installing Rebar on that section of the Track 3 platform that we had demolished.

And helical piles are being installed as part of the supportive excavation, which is in that top center photo.

And micropiles, as mentioned earlier, are getting started.

Upcoming probably about a week from now, we'll be looking to place concrete for the platform that is shown in the top right photo and bridge footers will follow on behind micropile work.

Next slide, please.

All right, this will be a video.

We'll cross our fingers and hope it works.

This shows some of the work going on underneath the jump spans that we installed earlier in the year.

This allows us to keep a lot of the work out of the roadway, which helps minimize those impacts to the traveling public.

Try not to talk over text so everyone can read.

All right.

So those are the crews installing the ends of the helical piles.

So you put those whalers on the end and then there is some welding that has to be done as part of it.

The struts connecting the existing abutment on the left and the sheet piles on the right and above are those jump spans that we did that we can work for in May and June.

So those are temporary spans.

So this is the track three south section of platform.

As we pour the concrete for this, that will be the first permanent thing that we've done on this project.

A lot of the work with the jump spans and all that kind of stuff, it's enabling work, it's temporary work.

This will actually be the platform as it will be at the end.

All right, so that red circle there, that's the area of the platform that we were talking about.

We demoed it and placed the concrete formwork, installed conduits for lighting and for speakers and things like that.

Rebar is largely in place and we're looking to place concrete.

And I believe we have some photos on the next slide, please.

Perfect, so there we are saw cutting and demo on the left.

and then roughly its current condition out there on the right, I believe that's before the rebar went in when they were working on compacting the subsurface materials.

But that's roughly what it looks like right now.

Next slide.

All right, we have been continuing our outreach in addition to this meeting.

We look forward to joining our friends at the Rosemont Civic Association in about two weeks.

All right.

So for more information, here's the project websites where you could find additional information about the projects.

Next slide.

All right.

And here's our social medias and all that.

Okay, thank you, Jason and Sarah and Naomi for your updates.

This is just a reminder of our general construction hotline for VPRA.

So in addition to the Long Bridge project hotline information I started earlier and the VRE hotline contact information that Jason shared, we have this general hotline and all of them, we aspire to respond within 24 hours to your inquiry.

So we are very responsive, so please make sure to reach out to us if you have any questions.

Also a reminder of our social media links.

We push out a lot of excellent contact on these platforms, so we hope that you're signed up for those.

Next slide.

We have established a survey for this community advisory group.

We hope that these quarterly updates are serving you well,

providing information that you and your communities need, but please let us know because we want to continue to evolve and improve these over time.

So if you can take a moment to complete the survey, there's a QR code and a link here.

We'll also send this out in a follow-up email for you and for those who were not able to join today.

Next slide, please.

Let's go ahead and open this up to our Q&A portion of the meeting.

Are there any questions?

Hi, Jason.

Thanks for the presentation.

I'm Matt Ginnivan, one of the kinds of development at JBG Smith.

You know, we are heavily invested right around all the Crystal City Station improvements.

That construction start date looked new to me.

Is that new?

Yeah, that's a little bit of a push, right?

And that's governed by the overall fourth track schedule.

So Crystal City Station, Alexandria Station, and the Alexandria fourth track, there is a very intertwined and very integrated phasing and sequencing of that.

So if one of them moves, they all move.

So that shift is primarily due to fourth track?

I would say it's kind of Fourth Track and Alexandria Station kind of in tandem.

Got it.

Correct.

Yeah, I would say in the, I'd say three months maximum.

Right.

Thank you.

Don't see hands up in the chat, but feel free to just speak up if you have a question.

Go ahead and turn on your mic.

OK.

I'll just check the chat.

Yep, I don't see any comments.

Okay, well, then I will go ahead and wrap up the meeting.

We really appreciate everyone being here today.

Our next meeting will be either end of January or early February.

We'll send that announcement out as soon as we have the meeting lined up.

And again, we appreciate your participation and for sharing this information with the communities that you represent.

Thank you.