VPRA Franconia Area Projects Spring Virtual Public Meeting 2023   6/13/2023

Thank you all for joining us this evening as we share information about Franconia area projects that the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority is implementing.

We are very happy that you all have chosen to spend an hour of your evening with us this Monday.

My name is Jerrica Gittman.

I'm the Director of External Affairs and Communications with the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority.

I will give you a bit of an overview of our evening and then I'll pass it off to Steven Barna, who is our engineering project director and the project manager for the Franconia area projects.

First, I would like to also recognize some of our partners for this project who will be joining us this evening.

We have Shree

Nam Phu Thuri, who is the NVTA Senior Transportation Planner, Dallas Richards, who is the VRE Chief Engineer, and Radwan Idris, who is a Transportation Planner with the Fairfax County Department of Transportation.

Welcome, and thank you all for joining us as well, and thank you for being such great partners.

We will give you an introduction and an overview of the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority, and then Steven will go into a more in-depth overview

of the projects we have in the Franconia area, and then he'll give you an update on the project schedule, and then we will close with a question and answer portion.

Going a little bit more in depth in how to participate in our Q&A, you can do that in one of two ways.

During the presentation, please utilize the meeting chat function to submit a question to the moderator, which is me, and we will answer the questions following the presentation.

or during the Q&A portion, please use the raise the hand feature to let us know that you have a question.

Once you raise your hand, we will acknowledge you and we will give you the ability to unmute yourself.

So if you raise your hand, I will call your name.

Please forgive me if I do not pronounce your name and then you will be allowed to unmute yourself.

Also, we have a comment form and a member of our team

is putting that URL in the chat.

Please, please submit any comments or feedback you have in the comment form as well as submit your demographic information so we know a little bit more about who's attending this evening.

Thank you for the introduction, Jerrica, and good evening, everyone.

Introduce myself again.

I'm Stephen Barna, the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority's Engineering Project Director.

I'm in charge of the Franconia Corridor Railroad projects that we will be talking about this evening.

Many of you may be hearing about the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority, also known as VPRA, for the first time this evening.

The Virginia Passenger Rail Authority is an independent authority created by the Virginia General Assembly in 2020 to promote and expand the availability of passenger and commuter rail service in the Commonwealth.

To that end, VPRA's projects will expand the availability and improve passenger rail service throughout Virginia.

This program is known as TRV, Transforming Rail in Virginia.

Partnering with Amtrak,

Virginia Railway Express, the Norfolk Southern, and CSX Great Railroads, VPRA is working to provide passenger rail service throughout the Commonwealth that is convenient and affordable.

Next slide, please.

This slide is a little busy.

On the right, you can see the Washington DC to Richmond rail corridor projects.

The I-495 Beltway is at the top of the map.

and I-95 is just to the left of the rail line.

Phase one projects are currently in the early design to nearing construction stage, and phase two projects are in the study to nearing design stage.

This slide shows the two projects that we were talking about this evening, the Franconia Springfield Bypass, excuse me, and the Franconia to Lorton third track.

To orient ourselves, the beltway is at the top of the map and the rail lines turn south to the Franconia Springfield VRE station.

Just south of the stations is the Bypass Project, an approximately one mile long bridge structure which will bring the passenger rail track up and over the two existing CS mainline tracks from the west side to the east side.

From the end of the bypass bridge, the Franconia to Lorton third track project will construct approximately six miles of new track adjacent to the CSX mainline tracks

all the way down past the Lorton and Otto train stations.

The bypass bridge and third track will be dedicated to passenger trains only.

This is an aerial view of the new third track beginning at the I-495 beltway and progressing south to pass the Lorton stations.

This slide shows views looking south from the pedestrian bridge that crosses over the CSX mainline tracks from the VRE station platform on the left of the tracks to the Metro station on the right of the tracks.

The picture on the left shows the existing conditions today.

The picture on the right shows a rendering of certain station improvements that VRE will be constructing

in conjunction with the VPRA rail improvements.

You can see the location of the new track to the left of the new platform extension and pedestrian access tunnel that VRE will be constructing as part of its improvements.

There are four locations of railroad bridge improvements the VPRA will be constructing for the third track.

There will be new bridges at two stream crossings, Accotink and Pohick Creeks.

Newington Road has one of the few remaining single lane bridge underpasses.

In the picture on the left, you see the existing single lane.

On the right, you can see a rendering of the two new railroad bridges that VPRA will be constructing.

Next slide.

At this location, a new bridge will be added to the existing bridge.

The picture on the left is the existing condition looking west down Lorton Road.

The picture on the right is a rendering of the new bridge in Piers.

This slide provides an aerial location of the Franconia Springfield Bypass with an insert rendering of the new bridge structure that will be constructed.

The bypass will eliminate one of the main bottlenecks in the rail corridor.

To the north of Franconia Springfield Station,

The passenger station platforms are located on the west side of the tracks.

To the south of the Franconia Springfield Station, the passenger station platforms are located on the east side of the tracks.

These are engineering aerial renderings of the bypass bridge structure looking south and north.

This can be seen as a somewhat unique railroad structure.

What are the benefits of these projects and indeed the Transforming Rail in Virginia program?

The ability to keep freight rail and passenger rail trains separate from each other will allow both Amtrak and VRE to increase passenger service to and through our region by increasing the number of trains and reducing wait times.

Next slide.

The third TACTRAC project is currently advancing the design to 60%.

The bypass project has completed 30% design.

VPRA has determined that a construction manager general contractor delivery method will be best for the

Bypass Project.

That procurement is underway, anticipating having the contractor on board this fall.

Thank you for your time and interest in our projects and for being here this evening.

Thank you, Stephen.

And before we get into your questions, which we're very excited to hear, I wanted to let you know that you can continue to get updates regarding this project and all of our others by staying connected.

First, I want to remind you that you can submit your comments.

and some additional information on our JOT form that we have included in the chat.

You can also have your questions answered if you email us, contact us at vpr.virginia.gov if you don't have an opportunity to ask your question this evening.

We will also be posting a recording of tonight's meeting on our website, virginiapassengerrailauthority.org backslash projects.

We have two project pages, one for the Franconia bypass and the other for the Franconia third track.

Both project pages will have this information and as always you can stay connected via social media.

That's LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

And now it's time for your questions.

Questions?

OK. Let's see who's first.

It's Mr. Mark Shuffler.

I will give you, I will allow your mic and then.

Good evening.

My question was surrounding, you know, how much is being done to accommodate a feature fourth track?

I'm trying to understand.

So this project does not include, you know, building the retaining walls to support a feature fourth track to be easily installed in the future.

I wasn't sure what the delta cost was to do that so that, you know, we could eventually have

potentially separation from passenger and freight earlier or make it easier to not have to go back and do major construction work along the six-mile corridor.

I just want to ensure what the delta cost was between getting everything ready for a fourth track to be put in in the future when the next phases come along to potentially go over the octoquan or potentially build a fourth track from Springfield to Alexandria.

That's a good question.

The additional cost is well over $150 million and it just makes it very difficult to complete the projects that we have underway now.

I'm sure everyone is aware that inflation has really been hitting the country hard over the past year.

and it has hit the construction industry extremely hard.

All material costs have gone up, labor costs are going up, and it's just prohibitive to go with the fourth track at this time.

What VPRA is doing, the structures that we are building, the bypass structure, the flyover over the CSX tracks,

The four bridges going south across the creeks, Newington Road and Lorton Road, all make provisions for that fourth track.

So the abutments for those bridges, excuse me, and the bridges themselves are going to be able to accommodate a fourth track, but the building of the track bed and the tracks themselves is just too expensive

It would prohibit us from actually accomplishing some of the phase two work that we do have on the books.

We have agreements with our partners, CSX, Amtrak, and VRE to increase service and the phase one and phase two projects are essential to get it completed so that we can move the additional trains for VRE and Amtrak forward.

Thank you, Stephen.

And now we have Philip Latassa from the Friends of the Akateek.

Yes, the right of way includes wooded areas extending outward alongside the existing tracks.

Well, at this point, we don't anticipate taking much if any new land in most locations, but the trees that are on the CSX right of way

Many of them are going to go with the new construction.

At this point, no.

It looks like we have a question in the chat from Marsha.

In light of shortages in materials, what provisions is VRE making for acquiring additional rolling stock to accommodate the increase in commuter rail schedule?

Is someone from VRE on?

Okay, we have another question for Mr. Shuffler.

Since you've already asked a question, let me take this question from Simon.

West to Winchester, that I'm not sure about.

I know we are going to be, as part of the TRV program, increasing

The rail service out West along the current VRE lines and then there will be new Amtrak service as far West as Roanoke.

OK, thank you.

Hi, I just had a follow up to my previous question.

Again, you know, there's been a lot of talk about bringing Metro to Prince William County and, you know, at a cost of over $10 billion.

And, you know, I just just trying to understand, you said about $150 million to be able to allow for six miles of double passenger track.

I just want to make sure that's broadcast to people so they understand, you know,

that's significantly cheaper than bringing Metro out if there's an opportunity to do that.

But I guess my real question is if Phase 2 is funded within the next year or two, would this create an opportunity to do this retaining wall work on the

on this project, and again, what are the impacts of delays to the VRE trains and Amtrak trains for this type of project?

Because it seems like you're going to have to build a new bridge, put two tracks on the new bridge, and then rebuild the old bridge onto these items.

What is the anticipated, is this going to be a delay of like five to ten minutes within the corridor for the next, you know, for like a two or three year period?

I just wanted to better understand what the

I don't believe there's going to be delays.

You're asking during construction, I assume, and I don't believe there's going to be delays.

Locations where we have to, such as at the new bridges, move the main line tracks,

We will construct a new bridge, move the mainline tracks onto that new bridge, abandon the original mainline tracks, demolish them, then construct the new two-track bridge that will go there.

There will be several locations where shoe flies or temporary track will be built that will allow the CSX mainlines to continue.

operating as they are today.

Can I add a comment, Stephen?

I will say that our service planning and communications teams are working because the Transforming Rail in Virginia program, as Stephen mentioned in his earlier comments, will include the projects that will be happening at the same time.

There are the potentials that the cumulative effect of all the construction may impact Amtrak and VRE service.

It should not be significant, but that's something that all of the stakeholders are coming together to figure out and make sure that we're mitigating potential service impacts.

And so all of those things will be built in those construction

Considerations will be built into schedules as we move into this next year of groundbreakings with our project starting in DC with the Long Bridge and moving down into Virginia.

So it may not be this specific project that causes construction and service impacts.

It could be some of our other projects that cause impacts.

Thank you.

I just wanted to ask about if funding, if federal funding comes in for some of the Long Bridge projects, would there be an option to be able to get this four track retaining wall project done within this timeline?

I would say no.

What would happen would be it would require a redesign of the path that we're going forward now.

which would increase delays, increase costs, and it would just be a path that we couldn't go down.

The decisions made to go with the third track.

Ideally, we would like to get a third track all the way to Richmond.

The really expensive part of that is going to be a new bridge over the Occoquan River, which is, you can see that

The long bridge over the Potomac is about one and a half billion with improvements.

It's way more than that.

Don't have an idea of what the Occoquan Bridge would cost at this point, but that would be the most expensive project that I believe VPRA would like to move forward.

Get the third track all the way down

You brought up the bridge over Route 1 and so we have a question in the chat.

The third track ends a lot long before the CSX bridge over Route 1 just north of Occoquan.

Would that be part of phase three or will it be further in the future?

And when was the last review of the condition of the bridge?

And Mr. Richard Jorgensen says

A noise study was done and it shows that there's no mitigation required.

The sound at the closest residences I believe is

shown in that study to be 66 decibels, which is within the Federal Transit Administration guidelines.

But once the 60% design is completed, there will be another noise analysis done as well as a vibration analysis.

I think

three or four residences that were identified as possibly having noise issues and vibration issues.

And we have Mr. La Tasa again.

Yes, the area to the east of the right-of-way and just south of the Franconians station includes extensive rare wetlands classified as Atlantic coastal acidic seepage swamps.

And these wetlands are fed by groundwater flow beneath the tracks.

How can these irreplaceable areas be protected from direct impacts or impact to their hydrology?

We do have to follow all of the requirements.

We are working with the Army Corps of Engineers now.

We are doing identification of all of the wetland areas and any effects that they have on the construction to maintain them will go into our designs.

We are going to not hopefully be taking much new property for this third track.

We are very cognizant of the fact that we have wetlands that we're adjacent to.

We also have the Akatink and Pohit creeks that we're dealing with.

So that's going into the design now.

We're moving from 30% into 60%.

Are there any other questions?

Either in the chat.

There is a follow up.

Yes, if there are no other questions, I've got three or four others.

There's an unpaved maintenance road parallel to the track south of Franconia Station.

Those roads are CSX's for maintenance of their signals and their signal houses.

The east side will become the passenger rail track.

We will more than likely be installing new access roadways to any new signals for CSX, but hopefully they will go on the west side.

Again, the east side is where the wetlands are and probably the most sensitive

Okay.

Okay.

Accotink Creek is a designated impaired waterway largely due to the impact of excess erosion sediment and construction project runoff is a significant source, particularly large projects such as the current I-66 widening.

That's understood and

The contractors will have to follow all of Virginia Department of Environmental Quality requirements.

They have pretty strict inspectors.

I've just come off of the Silverline project for WMATA, 14 years working with DEQ.

So I know how strict they can be and we'll have to follow

I'm sorry, looks like we have another question in the chat.

Alright, so it says there are sections of overgrown disused tracks between Franconia and Lorton.

There are what just a casual observer might consider disused or unused track, but the tracks that are out there now, they are industrial sightings that CSX uses and maintains.

I don't know how frequently they use them, but I do know that we have to maintain them.

Where our new tracks go through, there will be new special track work installed, turnouts that allow access to the side tracks.

Yes.

How can improvements for bicycle and pedestrian crossing of the tracks at Franconia Station be incorporated into the project?

Yeah, I understand that issue.

CSX,

has a pretty strict policy of not allowing any trails of any kind to go over, under, or across their right of way.

Should there be something planned to have bicycle crossings and just general trail crossings for all use,

That would have to go through CSX for approval, and that would be another government agency to do that.

But there already is a pedestrian crossing.

The one at the station, correct.

Yeah, that's

That's the only one that I'm aware of, and that's been there since the BRE station was constructed.

Or before that, I'm not sure.

And you're saying CSX policy would prohibit any improvements to that crossing?

I don't know what the arrangements are for that.

OK, we have a new question in the chat.

Yes, there will be a copy of the presentation.

There already is a copy of the presentation on our website and the recording will also be posted of this meeting.

Another question.

Well, second question first.

Yes, the bypass project and the third track to Lorton, those projects are going forward.

The Commonwealth will fund them.

We are trying to get

federal funds.

And if we can, that will certainly help move the other projects forward.

That's one of the big unknowns at this point.

Oh, the completion dates.

Well, we're working on advancing the 60% design.

If there are no hiccups on those,

Both of the third track project and the bypass project should be able to be completed in 2027.

That will depend on the advancement of the design should there be a hiccup in the advancement of the designs.

Not for seeing at this point, but it's always possible there that could delay,

Get started in 2024, which is the anticipated start for construction.

And Steven, you mentioned earlier that we are getting a contractor this year.

I'm sure there are, but I don't have them.

I don't have them in front of me, but I know early on there were some positive projections that

changed a bit for VRE, especially because they were pre-pandemic numbers.

We're looking at a different situation with VRE.

Prior to that, we were 80%, 90% some days capacity.

I know some days, I think Wednesday now for VRE, they're good if they're getting 30% to 40% capacity on Wednesdays, which is good.

We're hoping VRE can recover when

certain organizations, particularly the federal government, return to work.

That's part of the calculation, but in parts of our agreement, it allows to add some additional service to negotiate, particularly in the evenings or the weekends.

That's part of our agreements as well.

We don't have a date when that could come about, but that's part of the CSX agreement that was originally negotiated back in 2019.

to provide the potential for that as well.

Welcome.

Are there any more questions?

Before that, we do have another question in the chat about the funding split.

What percent of the project is being funded by federal funds?

Is it FTA or FRA?

We for this project don't have FTA

funding.

We do have a grant for FRA and we do have money from Amtrak, which is considered federal funding.

Okay.

Yeah, but the federal part of the major federal part on this project would be from Amtrak, but we don't have any right now grant money from the FTA or the FRA on the project.

But as Stephen mentioned,

We do have a grant that we put in for this project for the components that he outlined earlier.

OK, if there are no other questions, just want to remind you how you all can stay informed.

We'll put that.

Chat the comment survey back into the chat just so folks can have it at the top of their chat.

The JOT form.

Please submit any comments for the project.

in the survey.

That's a JOT form that is going to go back into the chat.

You can also send us an email at the email address listed on your screen.

We'll have a recording on the project pages and that's going to go up this, if not this evening, first thing in the morning.

And then please stay connected with us on social media, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

All of our project updates are up there.

And also just want to remind you if you

Want to meet some of our project team and have some more of your questions answered.

The project team will be at the VRE Franconia station for a pop up this Wednesday, June 14th from 3 PM to 6 PM.

They'll be sharing more information about the projects and you can maybe visualize a little bit better about what will be happening in the coming years and

We are very, very happy that you all spent your 45 minutes with us.

Thank you again to our project partners who joined and thank you to Steven who led our presentation.

The pop-up Wednesday is at the Franconia VRE station from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. That is a rescheduled one that we were supposed to have last week.

Again, VRE pop-up station at the Franconia VRE station.

June 14th, Wednesday.

And Jessica, can you put that information in the chat too, just so people have it?

And yes, we'll see you again next time.

Thank you guys.