Alexandria Duke Street Transitway Part Of Funded NoVA Projects

ALEXANDRIA, VA — The City of Alexandria's future Duke Street Transitway will receive funding from the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA) as part of its six-year, fiscal year 2020-2025 program. On Thursday, the NVTA approved 21 of 41 projects requested by 13 Northern Virginia localities and agencies.

Despite an estimated $240 million net revenue loss for the six-year program during the pandemic, the authority provided $539 million in funding for the 21 projects. Alexandria's Duke Street Transitway was among 17 fully-funded projects, which have sufficient funds to advance to construction. The remaining partially-funded projects can advance to the early phases of project development but not necessarily completion.

Localities with approved projects include Arlington County, City of Alexandria, City of Fairfax, City of Falls Church, Fairfax County, Loudoun County, Prince William County, and Town of Dumfries. Projects were also approved for the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, NOVA Parks, and Virginia Railway Express.

"The adoption of the Six Year Program Update demonstrates an ongoing commitment to a multimodal approach that addresses Northern Virginians’ mobility needs and challenges, and supports the region’s economic vitality, while providing an economic stimulus to the region’s economy," said Phyllis Randall, chair of the authority and the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors.

The authority's main purposes is to update Northern Virginia's long-range transportation plan, as well as prioritize and fund transportation projects to provide congestion relief. In 2013, a Virginia law established dedicated funding for Northern Virginia transportation projects for the authority to carry out its work. Membership is made up of nine Northern Virginia localities: Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William counties and the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Manassas and Manassas Park.

See the full list of the 21 projects funded by the authority and project descriptions.

NVTA funding for Alexandria's project will go toward an initial phase of the transitway, which will create Bus Rapid Transit between Diagonal Road and Landmark Mall. The first phase will fund stations, shelters, buses, limited right-of-way and utility relocation. It includes dedicated transit lanes between Landmark Mall and Jordan Street as well as Roth Street and Diagonal Road. In the remaining section between Jordan Street and Roth Street, transit will run "in mixed flow," which includes queue jump lanes and Transit Signal Priority.

Future phases would seek to provide dedicated transit lanes pedestrian and bicycle improvements throughout the entire corridor.

According to the project milestone timeline, design, engineering and environmental work would happen through fiscal year 2023. Right-of-way acquisition would happen in fiscal years 2024 and 2025, and construction would take place from fiscal years 2025 to 2027.

The authority put out a call for regional transportation projects in July 2019. Over 41 projects were reviewed, and around 1,000 public comments have come in during the process. According to the authority's executive director Monica Backmon, 85 percent of comments were focused on four approved projects: Arlington W&OD Trail Enhancements, Downtown Falls Church Multimodal Improvements, West Falls Church Access to Transit and Multimodal Connectivity, and Van Buren Road North Extension: Route 234 to Cardinal Drive.

With the new funding program and four previous programs, the authority is advancing 106 regional transportation projects. The projects, totaling almost $2.5 billion, are aimed at reducing congestion in the region.