Plans to build a bridge between Crystal City and DCA poised to take two steps forward

A plan for a pedestrian bridge between Crystal City and Reagan National Airport is headed to the Arlington County Board for endorsement this weekend.

Specifically, the Board is set to bless a girder-style bridge that will connect a future southern entrance to the Virginia Railway Express station at 2011 Crystal Drive to the airport’s Terminal 2. It is also slated to approve more funding for an engineering firm to further develop designs for the bridge, dubbed the CC2DCA multimodal connection.

“The goal of the project is to create an intermodal connection designed to meet the needs of a broad range of pedestrians, bicyclists, and micro-mobility users of all ages and abilities between the core of Crystal City, the Mount Vernon Trail, and DCA,” per a county report.

Currently, getting from Crystal City to DCA on foot or bike involves navigating a series of trails and crossings the county has previously described as “circuitous.”

“Once completed, the journey from the foot of the bridge to the newly constructed security checkpoint at DCA would be about 1,300 feet,” the National Landing Business Improvement District said in a pamphlet published last winter. “Once completed, the new CC2DCA Multimodal Connector would make National Landing the only downtown in the country with its main street within a comfortable 5-minute walk from a major airport.”

After endorsing the project on Saturday, the Board is set to approve a new $4.2 million contract with Boston-based civil engineering firm Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc. (VHB) so it can begin drafting preliminary designs. This includes nearly $386,000 in contingency.

Although it may seem incremental, the county says these signs of progress are important milestones in the years-long project, which the county projects could be completed in 2028.

First, this step forward means that a conceptual design phase and environmental review process led by the civil engineering firm VHB are wrapping up.

The County Board approved its first contract with the engineering firm in the spring of 2021 for design work.

Since then, the county, VHB and state and federal agencies winnowed down 16 initial bridge and tunnel connections to a “preferred alternative” and a runner-up bridge proposal, both unveiled last October.

The county says the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Parks Service signed off on the “preferred alternative” this February.

Meanwhile, an environmental assessment was conducted because CC2DCA would use federal funding and possibly impact the GW Parkway and other land maintained by the National Park Service. Arlington County said in the report that it expects this assessment will be ready for public review this summer.

Lastly, it took a few months of negotiation for the county and the engineering firm to agree to a new contract for the next design phase. If the County Board approves the $4.2 million increase this weekend, study and design spending will reach $8.2 million.

This is entirely covered by $9.5 million in Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) Improvement funds already allocated to the county. The federal government estimates the project’s total cost could be around $40 million.

Arlington County first identified the need for a better connection to the airport in 2010 but the project gained traction seven years later, when the National Landing BID pitched the idea and conducted a feasibility study.

In 2018, the state identified the bridge as one of five transportation projects it would partially or fully fund as part of its deal with Amazon, which is preparing to open the first phase of its second headquarters in nearby Pentagon City.