The Long Bridge Project Public Meeting - May 7, 2025   5/7/2025

Good evening, everybody.

Closer.

Closer.

Closer.

Good evening, everybody.

Thank you for being here for the Long Bridge Project meeting.

I'm Meredith Judy with the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority.

We're here to talk about Long Bridge Project construction and what to expect during construction for those people who live, work and travel in the Southwest.

We also want to talk with you about ways to stay in touch with us throughout the construction process and ways that we'll be pushing out and providing information to the public throughout that time period.

We'll start with a presentation and then we'll follow up with a question and answer session.

You can ask your question to the group.

You can fill out a comment card that's available at the sign in desk or you can write in the chat to ask a question.

So we look forward to having that discussion with you.

Let's start with some introductions.

As I said, I'm Meredith Judy.

Good evening, I'm Scott Crumley.

Good evening, everyone.

I'm Ian Langham.

Hi, good evening.

My name is Naomi Fine.

Hi, my name is Patrice Brooks.

I'm with TVNA.

I'm a part of the Committee on Affairs and Outreach.

My name is Tom O'Rourke.

OK. All right.

Guys, I'll have to give me a second because I'm short.

Just adjust it.

All right.

Now, I can't tell what I look like online.

So I'm going to assume people can see me.

OK, great.

All right.

Sure.

Thank you.

All right.

So we have our agenda up, introductions done.

How's that?

Good?

Okay, great.

I'm going to talk about the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority, who we are, and then I'm going to talk about the Long Bridge project.

And then I'm going to hand it off to Scott, who's going to talk more about construction and maintenance of traffic during the project.

So we are the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority.

Who are we?

We were created in 2020 by the Virginia General Assembly.

We are a government entity, but we are an independent authority, which means that rather than report to the governor, we report to a 15-member board of directors.

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

And so we are not a railroad operator.

We do not run trains.

But what we're responsible for is really building the tracks and the structures that will allow us to expand passenger rail, both in Virginia and in DC through the Northeast Corridor.

And I'm going to go into that right now.

So this just shows you the Virginia passenger rail network.

We have four state supported Amtrak routes, eight daily round trips, five Amtrak long distance round trips, one North Carolina state supported round trip.

And then for VRE, we have 32 trains a day, 16 in Manassas and 16 in Fredericksburg.

So what you see here is a map of all of our projects.

We have many projects between Washington DC to Richmond and what we're looking to do really is to separate passenger rail from freight rail so that we can run more passenger trains.

We are looking at the capacity and as people know, as the population grows, people are coming for more jobs.

We want more ways for people to be able to get to where they're going, to get to work, to get to entertainment without having to drive.

So the new service that we're unlocking includes new Amtrak and VRE round trips, which would include late night and weekend service on VRE that's not currently available.

And then future capacity for three new Amtrak round trips and two additional VRE trips.

So you can see many projects here, but the one we're here to talk about today is the Long Bridge project.

So this is the Long Bridge project area.

It starts, I'm going to start from left to right, in Arlington by the Long Bridge Aquatic Center.

It then goes and crosses over the GW Parkway and the Mount Vernon Trail, over the Potomac River, over East Potomac Park, over I-395, over the Washington Channel, over Main Avenue,

through the Maryland Avenue overbuild and then ends at L.E.

Interlocking.

And interlocking is just a railroad term where a bunch of tracks converge that allow trains to move from one side to the other.

But L.E.

Interlocking is just south of L'Enfant Station.

So while we call it the Long Bridge, it's actually a series of bridges, the largest being the bridge across the Potomac River.

The existing Long Bridge right now is two tracks.

The new bridge that we're building across the Potomac River will be two tracks, and the existing bridge will remain in place, continue to be owned by CSX, while Virginia will own the other two tracks.

And so what that allows us to do is really separate freight from passenger.

Why that is so important, right now, everything that comes up the East Coast pretty much has to go across this bridge.

and this bridge is shared by VRE, Amtrak, and CSX.

So all the freight and shipping, all the VRE trains, and all the Amtrak trains essentially travel over this two-track bridge.

And south of here, there are three tracks in Alexandria.

North at Union Station going up the northeast are four tracks.

So this two track bridge really does become a pinch point where everything converges.

And so by building another two tracks, what we do is we allow freight to run more, which will take trucks off the road and allow passenger trains to run more often.

So that is just a little bit about the project.

In addition, something that people have been very interested about, in addition to the rail bridge, this project will also build a dedicated bike pedestrian bridge across the Potomac River.

That bike pedestrian bridge will connect the Long Bridge Aquatic Center and Long Bridge Park Trail, the Mount Vernon Trail on the Virginia side,

with the bike lanes in East Potomac Park at Ohio Drive on the DC side.

It will be a 16-foot bridge that will be completely separate, its own structure for bikes and pedestrians.

So that will be a really nice facility and you'll see more of that in this presentation.

So this is just another visual of the project.

It shows you that we're working in a very constrained space.

From left to right, you've got the 14th Street Highway Bridge, the WMATA Yellow Line Bridge.

Then we are fitting our two new bridges in between the existing WMATA Yellow Line Bridge and the existing Long Bridge.

So the bike pedestrian bridge and then also the new Long Bridge.

So you can see there's a lot of structures and a pretty small space here.

and then on the right hand side are just some facts about the project.

So this slide is showing you how we're going to construct the project.

Because of the size, it's being split into two.

While it is one project, it's being split into two packages for the purposes of construction.

There's a south package and a north package.

So tonight we're here to talk about the north package.

But the south package is responsible for everything across the Potomac River.

So starting in Arlington, both the bike pedestrian bridge

and the new two-track rail bridge that go over the George Washington Memorial Parkway and Mount Vernon Trail and over the Potomac River.

The south package ends at the abutment in East Potomac Park by Ohio Drive that is closest to the water.

The north package then picks up there and continues the project, essentially everything that is in the district.

All of the infrastructure through East Potomac Park, over the Washington Channel over Main Avenue, and through the Maryland Avenue overbuild to L.E.

Interlocking.

So the North Package is a progressive design-build contract, and that design-builder came online a little over almost a year and a half ago.

We are entering early works construction packages.

When I say early works construction, we're not building any of this infrastructure yet, but what we're doing is some work that will help lay the groundwork for that future construction.

And that's starting really right now and then through early next year.

The south package, the design builder came on board January of this year and construction is estimated to start in the middle summer of next year.

So this is a project scheduled to show you where we've been and where we are now.

This project has been coming for a long time.

So hopefully for a lot of you, you have heard of it before.

But if this is your first time hearing of the project, welcome, probably won't be your last.

So we started this project in 2011.

It was actually led by the district, by DDOT, the District Department of Transportation, with grants from the Federal Railroad Administration, FRA.

And so through those studies and a lot of public involvement is how we got to the options where we are now with a new two-track rail bridge.

the existing bridge staying in place, and a new bicycle pedestrian bridge.

That's essentially what we looked at in 2011, were those options.

We completed our environmental analysis, which is known in shorthand as NEPA, the National Environmental

Thank you.

National Environmental Policy, and we completed that in the fall of 2020.

At that time when the document was signed by Federal Railroad Administration and NPS, it was transferred over to VPRA

to finish the design and construct.

So we are in that final box from 2023 to 2030, where we are acquiring land, obtaining permits, finalizing design, and then beginning construction.

This just shows you that there are a lot of cooks in this proverbial kitchen.

We coordinate with many, many stakeholders because we are in the DC region, both federal, district, and Virginia partners.

We're also coordinating with all of the rail operators, Amtrak, VRE, and CSX.

So you can see DDOT here, DC Office of Planning.

We also work with our partners who

who look at the aesthetic and historic nature of the project, the Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission.

Much of this project is constructed on National Park Service land, so we work very closely with MTS and then also private property owners who are adjacent to the project, especially the Washington Marina and the businesses on the Maryland Avenue overbuild.

So that's just a few of the many stakeholders listed on this slide.

This project adds a lot of value for the district.

The estimated value is $300 million.

Obviously, one of the biggest added values is the new bicycle pedestrian bridge over the Potomac River.

But additionally, some of the other bridges that exist today have

for trucks or large vehicles

We're also installing more security features, so corridor-wide fencing, security lighting, upgraded crash walls, and an improved fender system.

Additionally, there is a new pedestrian bridge over Main Avenue, which we'll talk a little more about in detail, and we're upgrading that to be ADA accessible, which it is not today.

and then improving the 14th Street off-ramp and also improving the sidewalk width near that off-ramp along Main Avenue.

This is another timeline that, while the previous timeline started back in 2011, this one is a little more detailed starting from when VPRA took over in 2022.

So it shows you that from 2022 to the end of 2023 was when we completed our preliminary engineering.

We started our final design.

at the end of 2023 and we plan to complete our final design and this is for Long Bridge North towards the end of this year and then construction is approximately five years from the end of this year when we're doing the early works through 2030.

This is another visual just showing you how combined the space that we are working in.

So you can see on the right hand side we have the existing Long Bridge, the new two-track

Bridge that we are building to the left of that is the Bicycle Pedestrian Bridge.

There's also a ramp that will come down from that bridge to meet the Mount Vernon Trail.

So you see that next to it.

And then the existing Wamata Yellow Line Bridge.

So again, we are fitting a lot of infrastructure into a pretty small space.

These are some renderings that show you the existing structure and the proposed new structure.

So on the top, you can see that is the existing Long Bridge.

And then on the bottom is a rendering of what the new two-track rail bridge will look like next to the existing bridge.

And these visuals have been coordinated very closely with the Commission of Fine Arts, CFA, and the National Capital Planning Commission, NCPC, along with other stakeholders.

This is the Main Avenue Rail Bridge.

One thing that I did not go over previously is once you are in East Potomac Park and the project crosses over I-395, the space that we have to work in is so constrained that we cannot build a structure separate from the existing structure.

So what we will have to do is demolish the existing structure and then rebuild a new four-track structure.

So that's what you're seeing here at Main Avenue that there's an existing two tracks that will have to be removed in order to build a new four-track rail bridge here.

One of the benefits of the project is that there is a portion of the sidewalk on Main Avenue that has to narrow down to currently 11 feet.

And the reason for that is because the bridge abutment for the rail bridge is in the way of being able to widen that sidewalk.

Because we are building a new bridge abutment, we are going to be able to pull that back and allow the sidewalk to be widened to 24 feet.

Why that is such an improvement is because this is part of the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail, and so it's used by both a large number of cyclists and pedestrians.

And so this is just one of many improvements of the project for the district.

This is showing you the new bicycle pedestrian bridge.

The image on the top shows you an aerial view.

The image on the bottom shows you a view from on the bridge.

And then you can see to the right the existing bike pedestrian path.

It is attached to the 14th Street

Highway Bridge, and it's only about seven and a half feet in width.

The new bike pedestrian bridge will be 16 feet wide, so more than double that width, and also a completely separate facility, so it will be a much better experience for users than the current path.

This shows you the existing bicycle pedestrian network in the District of Virginia and how the new bike pedestrian bridge that we're building is really a critical link on connecting to many park facilities and other bike paths.

So these are some renderings of the different landings of the bike pedestrian bridge.

This is one landing on the Virginia side at Long Bridge Park in Arlington and we've coordinated this very closely with Fairfax County Parks where it will tie in with their trail.

And this is the connection at the Mount Vernon Trail, which we've coordinated very closely with MPS.

And what you can see in the rendering is that we have a ramp down that allows it to be ADA accessible.

But for people who want a shorter route, there are also stairs on the other side that will then bring you down to the Mount Vernon Trail and allow you to connect into that facility.

And this is the landing on the DC side.

So this is going to connect into the bike lanes on Ohio Drive.

And sorry about that.

So this is going to connect into the bike lanes on Ohio Drive.

And for anybody who saw some of the original designs of this bike ped bridge, one of the original designs we had had switchback ramps on either side.

We had gotten feedback from the bicycle community that they did not feel that that was user friendly.

And so you can see that these landings tie directly in without making people essentially go back and forth.

And we got really positive feedback from cyclists and walkers on on this change.

So this just talks about the pedestrian bridge over Main Avenue.

This is an aerial view.

It's a little hard to see on this slide, but essentially there's a pedestrian bridge over Main Avenue.

It is privately owned by the businesses on the Maryland Avenue overbuild.

That pedestrian bridge was previously a rail bridge that brought you to a rail yard that used to exist where the Maryland Avenue overbuild now exists.

and when the overbuild was developed, it was converted into a pedestrian bridge.

Unfortunately, that bridge lies exactly where the two new tracks need to be put for the rail structure, and so that bridge has to be taken down and rebuilt.

Here's where you can see the design of the new Ford track rail bridge.

And then right next to it is where we are going to put the replacement on the Avenue pedestrian bridge.

So on the left, you'll see that the existing pedestrian bridge, you can see how it comes right up to the two rail tracks, which is why it cannot remain in place when we construct the project.

And then there's a view from the existing bridge.

This is a rendering of the new Main Avenue pedestrian bridge.

So the current bridge only has stairs, so it is not accessible.

This new bridge, we will have both a ramp and stairs, and we've coordinated this design very closely with the owners of the bridge over many years.

Additionally, in order to put in this new bridge, it does require us to have to take a little small sliver of land from the Washington Marina parking lot.

However, we will be reconfiguring that parking lot to make use of the space that they have the same number of parking spaces that they have today.

And these are just more renderings from different angles of the new four track rail bridge and then the replacement bridge over Main Avenue.

And this just shows you a cross-section of what it will look like.

It's going to have planter beds on either side, which is what it has today, and it will be wider than the existing bridge.

So what's happening now?

So we have some pre-construction activities.

I alluded to that through the early works packages.

So we're doing some archaeological testing, vibration monitoring borings, test piles.

Essentially what we're doing is some ground penetrating activities that allow us

to inform the design for construction to understand how the bridge needs to be built in order to be structurally sound.

We're doing some early clearing of trees and brush, and we're working on our maintenance of traffic plan, which is coordinated very closely with DDOT.

So additionally, we have regular stakeholder coordination that is ongoing.

We meet monthly and sometimes weekly with the stakeholders, CSX, VRE, Amtrak, DDOT, the National Park Service, and the adjacent property owners.

These are all stakeholders that we meet with regularly and then of course we meet with other stakeholders on specific issues or when there is the need for that.

And a lot of the topics that we discuss on a regular basis with regular standing meetings with these stakeholders are traffic analysis, travel, noise and vibration, the structures themselves and the design of them, utilities, inspection and permit, special events and public outreach.

Thanks, Scott.

Good evening.

Yeah, thank you, Naomi.

Naomi covered a lot of great material there and the number of stakeholders that we have been coordinating with, especially over the past couple of years.

That that coordination is certainly intensified.

We wanted to hone in now on the specific impacts to Maiden Lane and Main Avenue.

And in a nutshell, what this graphic conveys is that there will be continued and sustained impacts on both these roadways.

from later this year through 2030.

So let me share some additional details and, of course, the mitigation steps that we're taking to minimize impacts.

So first, Maiden Lane.

There will need to be a closure of Maiden Lane here that is shown in orange.

And I'm trying to use my mouse here to show that area there kind of at the bottom of the screen.

That area of Maiden Lane will need to be closed

for construction of what Naomi just mentioned.

Just for perspective, on the left side of the screen is the 14th Street US-1 roadway.

Main Avenue is in the bottom left corner of this

So Maiden Lane actually diverges off of westbound Main Avenue

and currently services the Portals 5 building here, their loading dock, as well as their garage entrance here.

And it's currently a one-way operation going northbound up towards D Street.

But during construction, again, this portion of Maiden Lane in orange will be closed.

And the portion of Maiden Lane north of that

will be converted to a two-way operation that's shown here in this graphic here.

So access will still be maintained to the 1331 garage entrance as well as the loading dock, but it will be maintained only from D Street, only from this area here, and two-way traffic will exist along Maiden Lane.

There will be some parking spaces that are removed for construction down in this area, but I just want to emphasize that there will be uninterrupted access to the garage area here and the loading dock for 1331.

Secondly, I wanted to provide an overview of the Main Avenue construction areas and the schedule.

And the upper left graphic here is what we're calling westbound construction.

You can see here 14th Street is on the left side of the graphic.

Main Avenue runs from the left side to the right.

You can see the diverge of Maiden Lane here, right near the Salamander Hotel, as well as the existing pedestrian bridge over Main Avenue.

So this westbound construction zone

is what's shown here in dark green.

This is kind of the northern side of this area.

The eastbound construction area is basically the inverse of that.

It will be on the southern side of Main Avenue, and that's shown here by the lighter green or teal color.

What we tried to do here schedule wise was to associate the colors with the approximate timeframes of when these phases would be under construction.

So if you look at the dark green zone here in the upper left box, you look down at the schedule, you can see that construction will start in this area later here in 25 and run until approximately spring of

2026, where then we will flip and implement the eastbound construction zone.

And you see that will be in place here, shown in this lighter green color, until early 2028, where then we will convert back to the westbound construction zone.

and that will run for approximately a year until 2029, then we'll convert back to the eastbound construction zone.

So we're flip-flopping in order to construct that very complex Main Avenue rail bridge that Naomi talked about, as well as the new pedestrian bridge over Main Avenue.

So that's a big picture.

We have more details, but wanted to start with an overview.

Our goal, big picture, is safe access for motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians.

So when we think about constructing the project, and especially here in Main Avenue and Maiden Lane, our goal is safe access for all those modes of travel.

while maintaining access to motorists on Main Avenue, the Salamander Hotel, of course, all the portals development, the marina operations, as well as accommodating the rail and freight traffic that use the rail corridor.

And our goal all along is to streamline construction and minimize impact.

So I'll talk about some more details here moving forward, but that is our goal, is safe access.

There will be a need for occasional nighttime lane closures and some weekend detours.

Like I mentioned, Maiden Lane will be closed and that's really to maximize safety during construction.

The northbound 14th Street ramp that you may be familiar with, it travels northbound and you can't exit there at Main Avenue.

That will be closed for limited periods throughout construction.

But to emphasize, pedestrian access will be maintained across Main Avenue throughout construction.

It does require a temporary pedestrian bridge, but access will always be maintained from the Salamander Hotel over towards the Marina parking lot area.

So to get into a little more granular detail here, I wanted to tease out some details for each of the construction areas here.

This slide here shows the westbound construction traffic pattern.

And I'll start with the, you can see 14th Street in the bottom left of the slide here.

Main Avenue kind of runs from bottom left to upper right.

The existing pedestrian bridge is noted here.

And in this traffic pattern, there will be two eastbound travel lanes as there is today, and pedestrian traffic will be maintained as it is today.

Along the westbound Main Avenue movement, there will still be two lanes.

But you'll notice that there's no pedestrian access on this side, so I'll have some additional slides that share details about that.

But in summary, there's two travel lanes provided in each direction, and pedestrians will be maintained where they currently are on the south side of Main Avenue.

The eastbound construction traffic pattern

still maintains two lanes westbound that you see here in orange.

However, that rightmost travel lane will utilize a portion of Maiden Lane while they go under the railroad tracks, and then they will be directed to rejoin westbound Main Avenue up towards Independence Avenue.

So if you're going to

Westbound Independence.

There will still be two lanes like there is today.

There will just be a rerouting of this travel lane here.

In the eastbound direction, that will be reduced to one travel lane during this construction phase.

Pedestrian traffic will still be maintained but in a different location along those eastbound travel lanes.

And there will be barrier and other demarcations between vehicular traffic and pedestrian traffic along the eastbound roadway.

So here's some more detail on the pedestrian and bicycle accessibility.

As shown here in the upper left,

document upper left graphic.

This is for the westbound work zone here, again shown in dark green.

Pedestrian access will be maintained as you see here in this dotted pink line along the south side of Main Avenue that goes right by the marina parking lot and so forth.

Pedestrians on the other side of Main Avenue will be routed around the work area, again for safety reasons,

and if you look at the graphic on the right, pedestrians will be directed up to D Street, where they will follow appropriate detour signs over to 12th Street.

This graphic on the right side does show where the approximate sidewalk close signs would be, but there will still be, of course, access to the Salamander Hotel from this area here.

And the graphic in the bottom left again shows that continuous pedestrian access along the eastbound lanes of Main Avenue.

So access is still provided, albeit a little more circuitous for pedestrians on the north side of Main Avenue.

So for the eastbound construction phase, for the light green or the teal color here, you can see pedestrian and bicycle access will still be maintained along the eastbound travel lanes.

Access will always be 8 feet wide at all times.

And along this eastbound roadway here, the pedestrian bicycle access will actually double during the cherry blossom season.

As Naomi mentioned, it's part of the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail, and we're intimately familiar with the increase in bike and pedestrian traffic during

the Cherry Blossom season.

So the bike pedestrian capacity will double during that season.

So here's a summary of both the westbound construction phase here in the left graphic shown in dark green.

The lines shown on this graphic specify the number of travel lanes.

So the red are the westbound Main Avenue travel lanes.

The line shown in purple here are the eastbound Main Avenue travel lanes.

I hope no one's colorblind.

And then pedestrian traffic is shown as this bottom line here along the eastbound travel lanes.

The eastbound construction phase shown here in light green, again, will maintain two lanes westbound, albeit one of them kind of relocated to where Maiden Lane is today.

And there will be one lane eastbound on Main Avenue.

And you can see here in the magenta where pedestrian access is maintained.

There are a number of work zone mitigation measures that go into the planning of this sort of complex project.

And we've listed a few here and it really starts with a comprehensive transportation management plan that really looks at all facets of constructing the project.

The phasing of how to maintain traffic, how to maintain bicycle, pedestrian access.

It analyzes the impacts of all those details and then develops a streamlined and minimized way to complete the work.

So that's number one and the design builder of course has completed the first version of that and it's a living document that's regularly and routine updated as conditions change and as more information becomes available.

Throughout this whole process, we've been in very close coordination with DDOT.

That's one of the entities that we have weekly coordination meetings to talk about various submittals, upcoming efforts, and we will continue that all throughout construction to make sure that we're in lockstep with them on signal timing and all the rest as we manage

this construction project.

They've also developed a traffic incident management plan to streamline responses throughout construction.

They'll be monitoring and will be monitoring traffic operations and safety.

They'll be reviewing the work zone setups, noting any crashes in the work zone, of course monitoring queue lengths and travel times.

And again, we'll be in close contact with DDOT to request signal timing changes.

and then of course acquiring traffic data throughout construction so we can be proactive in trying to minimize work zone impacts.

Obviously this is part of our proactive public outreach efforts and I did want to share we have an ongoing adjacent project and special event meeting where we work with over 15 adjacent projects to the Long Bridge project.

So we hold regular meetings and coordinate on design issues, construction issues, and make sure that we're minimizing impacts throughout the corridor.

All right, good evening again.

Yeah, so we recognize and understand construction will cause impacts to the community and we are committed to mitigating and minimizing those impacts as best that we can.

The project will adhere to the district's noise ordinance and one of the ways that we will do that is to monitor noise levels to ensure that construction activities

remain within those levels.

We've got some other items that we'll use in order to maintain noise underneath those ordinances, one of which is using backup alarms that regulate the volume based on ambient noise, the noise in the environment.

and then we'll also make every effort to do daytime work, limiting the night work where we're able to to avoid the noise and also other safety concerns.

Again, we're going to monitor the noise levels throughout construction.

We'll also utilize whisper quiet generators, which every piece of equipment that we can get it to be as quiet as possible helps.

and we'll also employ drilling in order to build deep foundation elements rather than using impact hammer techniques.

And then we'll also monitor vibration in order to protect the adjacent buildings to the project.

All right, next I'll jump into boating impacts.

primarily here

Really, we're kind of open for the remainder of this year.

Nothing planned there, but it is important for us to let you know that the Washington Marina right adjacent to the project area will remain open as well as a portion of that parking area.

So those impacts will follow in later years.

The Washington Channel will remain open.

It's just we're working at the very end of it towards the tidal basin.

In the Potomac River, again, that is part of the south package, the navigation channel will remain open throughout the course of the project, but also understand that that navigation channel may change to an adjacent channel next to the one that's there currently today.

We'll utilize buoys in order to ensure that boaters are able to navigate the work areas, basically cordon off where we're building.

But we'll also utilize no wake zones in both locations.

Okay, as we wrap up, we just want to make sure that you know how we will be continuing to push out information to the public over the course of this construction project and how you can continue to communicate and give us feedback throughout the project.

We will use our website quite a lot.

It's already a robust website.

We put

We will announce

through email updates.

Social media is a great way to follow us.

We will have portable message signs on site.

We'll be issuing traffic advisories through DDOT and National Park Service, and we'll be using a press release methods to get for major events.

So we have a lot of different ways that we're sending information out.

You can pick the information strategy that's best for you, but I do encourage you to sign up for this email list.

That will be a great way to keep up with us.

And then, of course, we'll continue with our ongoing outreach methods of community meetings, door-to-door outreach.

We've established a community advisory group with representatives from residential communities, the business community, advocacy groups, elected officials, and their staffers that we meet with quarterly to make sure that we are sending information, the latest information out to the public, and then asking those individuals to bring back to us what they're hearing in their communities.

We look forward to keeping in touch with you.

Thank you for being here tonight, and now we'll open it up for questions.

Patrice is going to facilitate our questions.

You can raise your hand.

You can ask questions in the text chat if you are online.

Thanks, Meredith.

I'll get started.

We have a question in the chat.

How will you fit four tracks into the district going northbound?

Will there be four tracks at least through the Lafont Plaza?

How will you squeeze two additional tracks once you cross the Potomac River into the tunnel?

Does it involve removing the highway off ramp US 1?

So that was a pretty long question.

I can reread it.

Naomi, anyone want to?

Sure.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks for the question.

It will be tight.

As we were trying to convey, it's a very constrained rail corridor.

That's why we are having to reconstruct the rail bridge over Main Avenue.

But there will be four tracks that continue over Main Avenue that go into the tunnel or what we call the Maryland Overbuild.

We're actually going to be using the

Westmost Portal that isn't used a whole lot underneath the Maryland Overbuild in order to get four tracks through there.

And then VRE is constructing a project at L'Enfant Station to widen that from three tracks to four tracks.

So at the conclusion of both projects, there will be four continuous rail tracks across the Potomac River, through the Maryland Overbuild, through the tunnel,

to Lafont Station.

The 14th Street ramp was the other question.

So our project doesn't involve removing that ramp, but because of the construction that occurs along that ramp, it will be temporarily closed for periods.

But at the end of our project, it will be reopened.

So that northbound ramp from Route 1 or 14th Street to Main Avenue, that's the ramp we're talking about where you can go east, make a right turn on Main Avenue.

That will ultimately be reopened at the end of construction.

Hopefully that answers the question.

Thank you.

So we're going to go ahead and answer a question in the comments.

If you do have a question, just raise your hand.

Just raise your hand and Keith will come around with a microphone.

So we're recording the meeting and we also have people online.

So we just want you to say your question really loud and clear so everyone can hear it.

We will try to repeat it.

Okay.

This is an odd and anomalous project in many ways.

Here you have a Virginia government agency doing a project

in the District of Columbia.

Am I correct?

It's partly but not entirely on federal land.

Some of it is land that's not under the federal government's control.

So will the agency itself

be the builder or will the construction be outsourced to a contractor who would then be directly responsible to the District of Columbia or the federal government while the contractor is on federal or DC land.

and this is a huge project.

So great question.

There were a lot of pieces to it, so I'm going to try to answer all of them.

So the first one is that VPRA is the project owner, but we do have two design-build teams.

One is we split the project into two pieces for the purposes of construction.

One is a south package, and what that will construct is the bicycle pedestrian bridge across the Potomac River and over the George Washington Memorial Parkway and Mount Vernon Trail.

and then the south package will also construct a two-track rail bridge across the Potomac River.

Then when those bridges end in East Potomac Park, that is where the north construction package picks up and continues all the way to L.E.

Interlocking south of L'Enfant.

So there are two builders

that work for VPRA to construct the project.

Now to your question about the project being on federal land.

So that's a very interesting question.

So a couple of things.

One is that there is actually federal legislation that will allow the National Park Service to transfer the land needed to build this project directly to VPRA or to the district.

One thing that I may not have mentioned in my presentation is that DDOT will own the District Department of Transportation, will own the bicycle-pedestrian bridge, while VPRA will own the rail bridge.

So while we will construct the bike-ped bridge, at the end of the project DDOT will own and maintain that bridge.

But back to your question of how do these design builders coordinate with the federal entities and the National Park Service.

A lot of that, so we had that slide that talked about kind of our regular ongoing coordination.

That includes both with the district and with the National Park Service.

And a lot of that oversight is going to happen via permits.

So we obviously will need to obtain permits from the National Park Service in order to perform this work.

And then we have many standards that will govern that that work is done.

There are sets of railroad standards that the construction will be held to.

So I think that answered some of your question, maybe not all of it, where there's some pieces that

Oh simultaneous, thank you, the phases.

So the schedules for the north and south are independent, but there will be some overlap where there will be construction happening over the Potomac River at the same time that it is happening on the north package through East Potomac Park ends.

and to LE Interlocking, the bike pedestrian bridge and the rail bridge will not be constructed at the same time because you probably saw how we've talked a lot about it, how tight of an area it is.

They actually will use the rail bridge in order to construct the bike pedestrian bridge.

So you cannot build them simultaneously.

The thrust of part of my question, although it was implied, is if people in the neighborhood, of course we hope that this is totally theoretical, but if people in the neighborhood

have cause to believe that some construction requirement in terms of noise or whatever is being violated by the contractor.

One, is the contractor in charge of the site and the one who would be reported or VPRA would be reported.

And two,

To which entity of government would the person who believes, or maybe its own neighborhood would believe, that some construction requirement is being violated?

To whom would they report that?

Great question.

The noise ordinances are governed by district law.

While we are a Virginia authority constructing the project, the laws themselves that we're adhering to are district laws.

The reporting would be the reporting that you would do for any project that's violating those laws, which I believe

was through DCRA, so I assume that's now through Department of Buildings, because I don't know if that's too technical, but what was formerly DCRA got broken into two pieces.

And so I believe that those noise ordinances are now governed by the Department of Buildings in the district.

So that is who, my understanding is that is who enforces those laws.

So while we are a Virginia authority, the laws are the laws of the district.

Now, as far as who is responsible for that, I believe that would be who is holding the permits with the Department of Buildings.

In that case, it would be the builder.

However, if you contact VPRA, we will respond, right?

We will not say, oh, well, the builder's the permit holder.

So this information with how to reach us, that's what I would recommend that you do.

Thank you, Naomi.

I have a question online.

Thank you so much.

We do have comment cards if you have a question, and it's a pretty long question.

If you want to write it down, just raise your hand, and we'll write it to you as well.

I'm going to go to some of the Q&A online.

We do have a comment that says, thank you so much for the excellent presentation.

Thank you, John and Christian.

We appreciate that.

Lauren Schumer, for the Roman community,

Will bridge arches be closed off and how will that information be conveyed?

Will there be construction barges and or booms in place?

And if so, can they be lit more than the minimum USCG, US Coast Guard requirement so they're visible in the dark for river users out before dawn or after sunset?

I didn't quite catch the first part of it.

So portions of the Potomac that will be closed off are those outside the normal navigation channel.

and those will all be marked with buoys, aids to navigation.

The navigation channel will remain open.

At one point in time, it will need to shift.

That navigation channel will need to be shifted to the span directly south of it, which is the alternate location.

And then the next part of the question was about

Lighting, I believe.

That's not something I'm familiar with.

I do know from work on the Potomac, we do have to be cognizant of our lighting as we're working under the flight path into National.

Oh, thank you so much.

So

Yeah, it says here, can it be lit more than the minimum US Coast Guard requirements so they're visible in the dark and river users.

Yeah, we can, we'll look into that.

It's not, yeah, exactly.

We're more than a year from being in the river for actual construction.

We have one more question.

What are the construction bid schedules for both south and north projects in regards to steel fabrication?

What is the design of the bridges?

Okay, I will take a shot at this one.

The construction bid schedules for both projects.

So the north construction or the north package construction bid is, we came to conclusion on that in January of 24.

In regards to steel fabrication.

Yeah, maybe Tom.

Yeah, Tom, why don't you come up?

All right.

I'll try and be as clear as I can.

Keeping in mind that I can only speak on behalf of the north package, the south package.

I think it was indicated that this was representation here from the north package.

I think it was communicated that this is a progressive design build project, and that is a two-phase project.

The first portion is advancing design development and procuring very small packages to facilitate

better understanding of the project so that we can arrive on the second stage, which is negotiation for final design and construction.

So we are on the, I would like to say, on the cusp of finalizing an agreement with VPRA.

And when I say we, I mean the Skanska Flatiron Joint Venture, which is in control of the north package.

Not until we achieve commercial agreement will we be going out to secure subcontractor and major vendor purchases.

There's also a period after a notice to proceed for the second phase of the work where we have to complete the design.

and without getting into great detail, if we're right now taking a look at a commercial close in the next couple of months, we'll need two or three months to finish up some of the design packages and some of the bridge packages might go a little bit further.

Our steel packages will be spread out.

There are four bridges.

One of the major structures is the I-395 structure.

That will probably be, I'd say, third quarter of this year.

And then Ohio and Ohio Drive SW East and Washington Channel will be somehow or other dovetailed into that time period as well.

We do have opportunities for various services up and down

the spread of the work activities and supplies to the job site.

I'm sure you can find that contact information through a link on this particular job, and we will have some outreach events as well to better communicate the opportunities for procurement.

You don't have my safety glasses on.

Alright, so we have another question from online.

I'll read that and then I'll go to any questions in the room.

I have passed out comment cards, so if you have any comments or questions, just raise your card up.

We can read the question for you or you can talk on the microphone.

So.

Our plan is to maintain two tracks at all times that are open across Main Avenue, and that is one of the portions of of why Scott went through the very detailed plan for the maintenance of traffic on the road is in order to to phase construction in a way

that we are able to maintain those two tracks.

It will require building a temporary bridge and track across Main Avenue, and that's on the west side of the corridor.

And at that time, we will be able to demolish one of the existing bridges over Main, even though it's a common structure, a common through plate over Main Avenue.

We're gonna have to sever that in half.

in order to maintain one of the existing tracks and bridges while then building another bridge adjacent to the one on Main.

So in your consideration of citizens and stakeholders, would you please add the people who live in the apartment close to there because we can be your eyes and ears and give help.

And would you please also give us then the numbers we can directly contact the district, somebody who will be a live person other than just an answering machine.

That would be most helpful.

All right, thank you for that question.

Do we have any more comment cards?

I passed out a few.

I see some folks writing.

Do you want to answer your question now?

It was already answered.

Okay, so we'll collect those at the end.

I don't see any more questions online.

I don't see any more questions online.

Rachel, do we have any more questions?

Sure.

I just want to note that if you call this phone number and this email address, you will get a live response.

Even if there's not someone there at the moment, somebody will call you back, someone will reply to your email.

So those are really your best contact numbers.

So we appreciate you giving us feedback along the way, letting us know how it goes.

We want to be in touch with you and we want to minimize any disturbances along the way.