Fairfax County Rail Improvement Projects: Community Advisory Group Meeting #4   6/8/2026

Good afternoon and welcome to the fourth VPRA and VRE community advisory group meeting with a focus on Fairfax County.

As a reminder, our community advisory groups are designed to maintain ongoing coordination and communication with leaders in our project areas.

This includes residential groups, businesses, regional organizations, advocacy groups, elected officials, staffers, and others.

and we meet virtually on a quarterly basis for project updates and to hear your thoughts.

Let's move to the agenda.

All right, thank you.

Today's agenda covers all of our VPRA and VRE projects in Fairfax County, including the VPRA Franconia Delorton Third Track Project, VPRA's Franconia Springfield Bypass Project, and VRE's Franconia Springfield Station Improvements Project.

and we'll also provide some updates on our construction disruptions awareness.

Let's start by introducing our team.

We can skip to the next slide.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

My name is Sarah Hoover.

And I'm Meredith Giudy.

Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm Jeff Peltier, VPRA.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Hi, everybody.

My name is Jenna Friedberg.

And Adil is running a little bit late.

He had a medical thing that he had to attend to, but he will be joining shortly.

Alright, I'm Jason Bortz, VRE.

I'm the outgoing project manager for the Franconia Springfield station.

Okay, a brief reminder about who VPRA and VRE are.

We are leading these rail projects in Fairfax County.

Virginia Passenger Rail Authority is a state authority that was created by the Virginia General Assembly in 2020.

We're responsible for expanding and promoting passenger rail and commuter rail.

That's Amtrak and Virginia Railway Express service.

We design, build, fund, maintain, and manage passenger rail services.

However, we do not operate rail service.

Virginia Railway Express and Amtrak operate the rail services on our track.

All right, next slide.

VPRA is leading significant railroad construction projects across the Commonwealth.

Our focus right now is primarily on 11 major upgrades between Washington, DC and Richmond, Virginia.

And these will, when completed, dramatically improve Amtrak and Virginia Railway Express service, meeting our goals of improved capacity, efficiency and reliability.

Next slide.

and Virginia Railway Express is a longstanding commuter rail service in our region, offering service on two routes, one west from DC to the Manassas Broad Run area and one south to the Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania area.

VRE currently offers 16 daily trains on each line.

All right, let's go ahead and move forward with our construction project updates.

So within Fairfax County, we have several projects specifically along this corridor that runs between Lorton and Franconia.

Those include the three you see here, the Franconia to Lorton Third Track, which adds a third mainline along what is considered one of the most heavily populated corridors between Washington and Richmond.

It also includes the bypass, which is a rail bridge to allow passenger trains to move from one end of the existing freight tracks that CSX holds to the other end to allow for access to both passenger platforms on both sides of those main lines.

And then also we have the Franconia Springfield VRE station improvement, which will be occurring and allowing for the incorporation of both longer platforms and a new pedestrian underpass.

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So specifically looking at the Franconia to Lorton third track, you'll see the image here on the right that shows the location of this particular corridor.

It is, as I mentioned earlier, a third mainline track that is being installed.

That's approximately six miles.

It will allow for that continuous mainline between Alexandria and Lorton.

And a part of that will also include the construction of railroad bridges over both Newington and Lorton Road and some additional infrastructure to accommodate that additional third track as well.

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So there are four bridge projects that are part of the corridor improvements overall.

Two of them at Newington Road and Poet Creek include the construction of a new railroad bridge adjacent to the existing one and also the removal and replacement of the existing bridge.

and then the other two bridges at Akaton Creek and Lorton Road will include purely just the construction of a new railroad bridge adjacent to the existing one.

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So this is the schedule that we are currently looking at for the third track.

As you can see by that dark line, vertical line right through the center there, that is currently where we are at in regards to the project.

We are working through our property acquisition

Those that will be affected have been reached out to by our right of way team.

We're finalizing our 100% design in preparation to release the documents for bid through CSX.

And then we're beginning that process of procurement and construction, which will be ending in the first quarter of 2029.

Next slide.

So the current status of this project is as follows.

We have an early works package that is currently going on in the fields.

As I mentioned earlier as well, we have property acquisition underway.

So recently we completed our 100% review for the plan.

We've finalized plats for the right of way acquisition.

And as part of that early works package I mentioned, we'd had drainage and grading and track work that are going to be, or that have been installed.

at the future CP Beltway or Control Point Beltway.

That location is actually north of the corridor that includes the third track located at Fleet Drive.

So it is separate from this project in regards to location, but is very much a part of this location as it will allow for the retirement of the control point at Ravensworth, which is within the corridor.

We've also finished property appraisals as part of acquisition as well.

Looking at the ongoing piece, as I mentioned that Early Works, the track work is complete.

So we are currently working at the signal component of this.

I have some images of that on the next slide here in a second.

Part of that effort will include a cutover once the signal work is completed.

That is currently scheduled for the weekend of June 27th.

So at the end of this month,

We have bid packages going out for our right-of-way effort and then we've had some initial tree felling which were completed for utility relocation efforts that I'll speak to later.

The upcoming work that you see is a Fairfax County-San Jose sewer relocation.

We hope to begin construction for that in 2026.

This effort is something we're doing on behalf of Fairfax County and is supporting our third track project overall.

And then, of course, we have the contractor procurement as well for the overall project.

Next slide.

So these are the images that I mentioned earlier regarding the future CP Beltway.

On the left here, you see, we have a new signal bridge installed.

And on the right, it's a little bit hard to see from this angle, but we've installed some crossovers or turnouts as well.

for that control point on the image.

Next slide.

So this CP beltway is what we consider an interlocking and is basically we have a situation where we have an interlocking being relocated from control point Ravensworth to the future control point beltway.

So this interlocking is a system of coordinated signals and switches and it allows for trains to move across or between main lines and it allows for dispatchers to divert these trains as they work through routes and they allow

Operational efficiency in certain instances because it allows for the continuous movement of train traffic.

There's safety improvements that are part of this as well.

And for our purposes, they will assist in the shoofly construction because the current CP Ravensworth is in the way of the construction of the third track.

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So as I mentioned earlier, we are doing a sanitary sewer relocation on behalf of Fairfax County.

That is happening at four locations.

across that six-mile corridor, Berry Road, Newington Road, Cinderbed Road, and the Lorton VRE station.

The property owners that are being affected by this are mostly public or commercial properties.

Everyone that's been affected has been reached out to already.

We're currently working through the procurement process for this work, and we intend to begin construction in the fall of 2026 and hope to be completed by mid-2027.

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So for the third track effort, we are looking at several construction access points throughout the corridor.

These red arrows on the right represent those locations.

They include Gunston Cove Road, Lorton Market Street, Lorton Road, Lorton Station Boulevard, Pohick Road, Cinderbed Road, Terminal Road, Newington Road, and Berry Road.

While these locations all might be utilized throughout the project, they will not necessarily be utilized simultaneously.

So we should never have an issue where all of these locations are being hit at the same time.

These are just the locations we're considering as the project moves from north to south or south to north.

Next slide.

So one of the locations that is getting an entire bridge replacement is the railroad bridge over Newington.

This is a bridge that we have designed in coordination with VDOT and with Fairfax County DOT.

It will allow for a wider bridge span and

We are currently still working through the construction timeline for this process because part of that will be determined on the contractor that is selected.

So while we have submitted MOT plans and things of that nature to VDOT for review, we don't have a hard firm schedule yet for this work.

And we will be releasing that when we do have that.

As part of this effort, there is an interim alignment for the roadway widening.

Next slide, please.

So once we complete our bridge span, we're looking at an 84 foot wide bridge that will allow for this interim condition that you see here.

So once the bridge is completed as part of our project with CSX, we will be returning the roadway to a bi-directional road, not a single one lane road that it is now.

That is what we are doing on behalf of our project.

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Complete configuration, which is allowed through this design, is a four-lane road that includes a shared use path and a sidewalk.

This particular project will be performed by VDOT at a future date as this is a VDOT road and will require their design and construction.

Next slide.

Afternoon folks.

Sorry I was late.

I think I've been introduced, but I can do a quick introduction if need be.

Adil Mysorewala with VPRA.

I'm the project manager for the Franconia Springfield Bypass Project.

The Franconia Springfield Bypass Project is basically a rail flyover bridge.

So if you're familiar with flyovers, you know, we're basically going to be flying over the existing CSX tracks with our VPRA track that we're constructing out here.

If you can go to the next slide, it kind of shows some pictures or some rendering of what it's going to look like.

As I said, you know, we're showing a VA train going over the CSX train, flying over it.

Next slide, please.

So schedule-wise, we're in construction right now, with construction pretty much ending late 2029, early 2030s, what our expectation is right now.

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We'll talk about, you know, what's going on right now.

So, what we've completed is the Cinderbed Yard and Access, and I'll talk more about access points that we have for this site.

Cinderbed Yard is basically the enterprise parking lot, if you're familiar with the area that we've acquired.

We've also completed access from Loyesdale Road, which is right behind the Toyota dealership.

We've also completed two temporary railroad crossings.

Basically that lets us, our contractor, get from one side to the other side of the tracks on site.

What we have ongoing is we have a lot of temporary drainage installation ongoing, a lot of site access.

So if you live close by, you'll see a lot of earth moving activities, a lot of trucks coming in and out, you know, bringing fill in, taking dirt out, a lot of equipment delivery going on.

Retaining wall construction is the major construction activity that's ongoing on site right now.

We also have utility relocations ongoing and then our steel is being fabricated in our facility in Lancaster, Pennsylvania by high steel.

What's upcoming is shoe flight track construction.

That's going to be the major track activity that's going to start up.

We'll continue our retaining wall construction and then night work will start June 8th.

So you will see and hear work ongoing at night as well as culvert installation that's going to begin very soon as well.

Next slide.

So just a picture of what we have going on inside.

So on the left you'll see the soil nail staging.

It's basically a big piece of steel rebar that we install in the soil to kind of hold it in place.

On the right is testing that we have to do to make sure the nails are performing as designed.

And if you can go to the next slide.

So top left, when I mentioned Lowis-Dell Access, we had to build a temporary structure, a wire wall is what we call it, that basically lets, you know, the grade, we build a grade so that, you know, trucks can enter and exit easily.

You know, there's a big drop off in that area.

So we had to work around that.

Top right shows the same from another view.

And then on the bottom left shotcrete to basically rebuilding the face of the wall once the soil nails are installed.

And then on the bottom right you'll see the soil nails being installed with a drill.

Next slide please.

So like I said, you know, access.

So we have five points of access.

So Berry Road, obviously, we're coming down the cul-de-sac.

We're using that.

And then Loyesdale, like I mentioned, right behind the Toyota dealership.

And then the Cinderbed yard access.

as well as the Spalding yard access that's also coming off Lewisdale.

And the one that I didn't mention is the Springfield Centre Drive access.

We're actually actively constructing access right now from that side as well.

So we'll have some construction activity on that.

And that'll be another access point that we have on the west side of our tracks.

I think that's my last slide.

Actually, no, I have one more, sorry.

Construction disruption, just a reminder that, you know, when construction is going on, you know, you'll notice a lot of trucks coming in, a lot of, you know, construction noise.

We also have work occurring at night.

You know, most of the noise that we're generating is similar to a lawnmower, so excavator, bulldozers, you know, trucks and dump trucks, similar to a lawnmower.

We do have some jackhammer drills, but, you know, we're limiting that

especially at night, and that sounds more like a motorcycle or chainsaw.

So just a reminder on, you know, different noises that you may hear on site while construction is ongoing.

Okay, I will take it over from here.

Again, my name is Katrina Corkadel, and I am the Project Manager for the Franconia-Springfield VRE Station Improvements Project.

What we have here is kind of a brief overview of all the proposed activities that will be happening.

So in yellow you can see the layout of the existing station and then in the pinkish purple color we have here are the platform extensions and then the green will be our new pedestrian underpass or ramp to the station in coordination with third track and then the blue line it's kind of hard to see that is the planned third track location.

Next slide.

And then what we're actually doing as a part of the project.

So, if you've been to the Franconia Springfield station, you may notice that on the one side of the platform we can only open two doors on our trains, so we will be extending both platforms to accommodate eight-car trains, which will be really good for being able to get people on and off the train safely, make more room.

We will also be constructing that new pedestrian underpass, so it'll be mostly a covered walkway canopy situation until we make the bend to get to Berry Road.

and the reason we're doing that is so third track can pass behind the station and that way pedestrian access to the station is not removed or affected in any way and we will also continue to have pedestrian access to the station from Berry Road during construction.

We will also be making repairs to the existing station so that includes the pedestrian bridge, the staircase, the existing platform, the existing canopy, so everything will look very fresh and very new at the end of this project.

Next slide.

And then in terms of schedule, so we're in the permitting process right now, and we are expecting to get this project ready to go out to bid in the next coming months, which means we are expecting construction to start early 2027, and it will go for roughly two years, maybe shorter, you can always hope.

And that's what we have going on at Franconia.

Oh, some more pictures here.

Sorry, almost forgot.

You can see in the top left picture, we have a kind of cut through visual of the existing track with the new pedestrian underpass and the new third track.

So you can see how close the new third track will be to the back of the station, which really emphasizes why we need this new underpass.

The picture on the right is we have a rendering.

It does not show third track going over top of it, but you can kind of get a visual idea of what that final product will look like.

And then the bottom left you can see the location that we're actually talking about at the existing station.

And then the final picture on the bottom right is just another profile view of the tunnel.

Thank you, Katrina.

So we've been out in the neighborhood quite a bit.

You might have seen us or received some of our mailings.

We recently mailed 5,000 residents and businesses some postcards and other letters.

We're out tabling in the Windsor Estates and Lowesdale Estates just a few weeks ago.

And coming up, we've had supervisors in stakeholder briefings and we'll also have a few coming up.

Actually, next week we'll be giving a site tour to Supervisor Lusk.

and you can expect after this meeting a newsletter from us detailing everything that we've gone over as well as some additional construction updates and some more photos.

We are still working on the speed trailer request for Berry Road that is currently sitting with the Fairfax County Police Department.

We will keep everybody up to date once we are able to get the speed trailer installed and we will continue our quarterly CAG meetings at the similar cadence.

Go to the next slide.

If you haven't already, please make sure to sign up for our email updates.

You can choose which particular projects or newsletters you're interested in when you do that.

If you have any questions specifically about construction that you see in your area, that is our construction hotline right there on the screen, our hotline and our email address.

We have a construction disruptions map available online so you can interact with that and see exactly how the constructions

might impact your commute or your neighborhood.

And as well as our social links off there to the side will also give you a good idea of what's happening.

And if you go to our next slide, you'll see how you can stay informed with VRE as well.

So we wanted to thank you all for

Joining us so far, but right now we want to open it up for questions and answers.

We have opportunity where you can either put something in the chat, raise your hand, or shout it out.

If we're not calling on you, you can hover over at the bottom of the screen and see your options to put something in the chat or raise your hand.

So we wanted to get started.

If there's any comments or questions, looks like Jeffrey Carnes has his hand up.

All right, so I've unmuted myself, first step in any communication process.

As a longtime Fairfax County resident, and I'm happy to hear what's happening here on the Richmond line, but

I believe, and I have believed for as long as Virginia Rail has been in existence, VRE has been in existence, that there needs to be another station west of the Burke Station in Fairfax.

I know the county has not come up with a decision, but

The residents of Western Fairfax either have to go all the way to Burke, which means that they might as well commute wherever they're going to anyway, or head west to Manassas.

And it just seems to me that we have a large population of the county that's being underserved by a lack of a station in Western Fairfax.

and I know that Clifton doesn't like it, but the only reason Clifton is there because it was a train station and they celebrated occasionally by having train days at Clifton, but that belies the purpose that there needs to be a station in Western Fairfax.

We appreciate that and I'll reach back to our planning group.

I know they do kind of routine studies on

and the pros and cons of different locations for how we can modify our service.

I won't pretend to understand all the stuff that they do, everything they take into account there, but if you have not reviewed our 2050 plan, it does unpack a system plan.

It does unpack a lot of the things that we have in the queue and kind of the logic and the merit behind them.

Linda, you're on mute.

Thank you.

Sorry.

Looks like we have a question from Rick Schoffler.

Is the future fourth track accounted for at the Franconia Springfield station?

Yeah, I just have a few questions about the fourth track and, you know, again, for the whole corridor, you know, it's not clear, you know, where it's accounted for, where it's not.

So if there's any kind of, you know,

diagram that can show that the fourth track is accounted for here or there will be future earthwork needed to create another retaining wall or something like that because it seems like there's a retaining wall

put for the third track, but then it doesn't seem like there's enough room for the fourth track, so it would need to be put another retaining wall up.

So I just wasn't sure how much of the corridor is actually accommodated for a fourth track.

You can easily just lay the track as opposed to having to go back and do all this earth work again to accommodate for that piece.

So in regards to the track, I can speak to that.

So areas where we were able to account for the fourth track we have.

So the bridges that you see going over Lorton and Newington, they have been space proofed for a fourth track.

Yeah, I mean, for the station, you know, we're between, you know, essentially the existing two and the new third, the new fourth would be, you know, on the further further east from from the existing station.

So there's no additional

We also had a question earlier from Jeffrey Parnes about the slide deck.

I believe it will be made available at the end of this call or we're going to be emailing it to participants.

Do we have another question or comment?

Looking in the chat, there's a chat by question Keith Shoblin.

Do you want to read the question?

Hi, Derek is saying it and I am not.

Is the design complete for the Lorton Road Bridge?

So the design is complete for the Lorton Road Bridge.

We are currently coordinating with VDOT in regards to a maintenance of traffic plan to address the concerns there.

I'm aware that's right by the auto train entrance and there's a lot happening in that particular location.

We'll send out notifications if there's any traffic impacts.

We will send out traffic advisories ahead of time.

Hi, this is Keith Shufflin just following up on the question.

We had heard previously that due to construction work, at least one lane on each side of Lorton Road would need to be closed down during the course of construction.

OK.

I do know, Sarah, that we are having to rebuild the traffic barrier in the center pier in the median of Lorton Road.

So I'd imagine at least that left turn lane going westbound, and then the other side of it going eastbound, those would have to be closed when that area gets rebuilt.

But again, like Sarah said, we're still working through the details of which

Which lanes would be closed and when?

Okay.

Well, if there's no other questions, then we can let you go.

But I do want to thank everyone for being here.

Oh, I think we just got one more.

Michael Miller.

So we're coordinating with

VDOT right now in regards to whether the best the best case would be either some kind of detour or whether the best case would be to try and allow for traffic in a minimal capacity.

All right, any other questions or follow-up questions?

Speaking of the next meeting, these meetings are quarterly, so our next meeting will be September.

We'll be sending out a notice about the specific date, but we'll likely continue to hold these at 1230.

It seems to be a good time for a lot of people, and we just appreciate your continued feedback.

We hope that you will share this information out with the communities that you represent.

We noted that we'll be sending out the link to all of the, to the video and the PowerPoint by email.

And please share with your community.

And as you hear feedback, please be in touch with us.

Maybe Liv, will you move back to the contact information?

We have a hotline for VPRA construction projects.

And there we go.

Great.

Thank you.

Which we encourage you to use.

We monitor it daily.

and we will get back to you as quickly as we can.

Oh great, thanks for dropping in the chat there.

And then VRE does as well.