The still faint light at the end of the tunnel grows stronger week by week for Columbia Pike.
But that may be cold comfort for those facing at least 12 more months before years of construction are wrapped up.
“There’s still a way to go,” acknowledged Arlington County Board Vice Chairman Takis Karantonis in an Oct. 5 ARLnow interview.
But infrastructure improvements that for years have chewed up the five-mile-long corridor from near the Pentagon west to the Fairfax County line are under “tight and reliable timelines” to wrap up, he said.
Where Things Stand Now
And when will the end of construction occur? Karantonis said local leaders are working to speed the process, but construction impacts for the upgrading of roads, utilities and streetscapes likely will be felt through the end of 2025.
“It will take the entire year,” he said, adding that “we are trying to accelerate it as much as humanly possible.”
Construction work now is concentrated in the area east of S. Wakefield Street. In addition to ongoing disruption to drivers and local businesses, that segment of work has seen numerous construction-related gas leaks and, more recently, a downed utility pole.
The $114 million project is funded by a combination of county taxes on commercial property and regional funds from the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority.
Some of the existing infrastructure is more than seven decades old. Efforts to modernize it represent the latest twist in the saga of a thoroughfare that started life more than two centuries ago as a toll road connecting the Virginia countryside with the nation’s new capital.
Karantonis, who likely will rotate in for a year as County Board chair in 2025, and who before his 2020 election served as executive director of a Columbia Pike advocacy and business organization, promised a big party to celebrate the completion of work.
Looking Toward Post-Construction Era
Likely front and center at those festivities will be Andrew Schneider, current executive director of what now is the Columbia Pike Partnership. (When Karantonis headed it, the organization was called the Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization, or CPRO.)
“I can’t wait,” Schneider told ARLnow of the day all the work is completed. “I can’t wait not just because I can’t wait for people to have the Pike that they deserve, but because the future’s so bright for the Pike.”
“The Pike really does have all that we aspire to be as a community: strong public investment, thriving small businesses, a very healthy mix of housing options, and a distinct and eclectic community character,” said Schneider, who arrived on the job nine months ago. “What I look forward to is not only celebrating the completion… but continuing to celebrate all that Columbia Pike brings to Arlington and our whole region.”
Kate Bates, president and CEO of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce, also was upbeat about a post-construction era.
“Multi-modal improvements will enhance the area as a place to live, work and do business,” she said.
But there is a long year, or more, before getting to that day.
“We recognize the challenges Pike businesses face during this phase, and urge the community to support them, including during Arlington Restaurant Week, hosted by the Chamber Oct. 14-21,” Bates said. “Three Pike restaurants — The Café by Kitchen of Purpose, Abi Azteca and Sabores — are participating, offering a great way to show support while enjoying a great meal.”
Helping local businesses hang on through another challenging year was a message also delivered by Karantonis.
“Go and support the businesses — we are asking them for quite a bit of endurance,” he said.
Broadly defined, the Columbia Pike corridor encompasses a host of South Arlington neighborhoods, including Alcova Heights, Arlington Heights, Arlington Mill, Arlington View, Barcroft, Columbia Forest, Columbia Heights, Douglas Park, Forest Glen, Foxcroft Heights and Penrose. All told, nearly 40,000 people call the corridor home.
While the multi-modal improvements are the current cause of disruption, their completion won’t end occasional aggravations for Pike residents and visitors. For the next two years, a successor to the Arlington Career Center will rise just north of Columbia Pike, and that’s just one.
“There are other projects underway on the Pike, most significantly at the very east end — federal projects related to access for Arlington [National] Cemetery and the Air Force Memorial,” Schneider said. “There has also been construction along the Pike, and there will continue to be construction that has nothing to do with the multi-modal project or the Defense Department.”
County government officials appear hopeful that economic redevelopment of the Pike corridor, which began in earnest 20 years ago but in recent years seems to have stalled, will resume once work is completed and as, in the words of Karantonis, the area feels “more metropolitan.”
Ten Years Since Streetcar Nixed
Next month will mark the 10th anniversary of county leaders making a U-turn and abandoning the proposed Columbia Pike streetcar project. Much of the work currently underway likely would have been done in conjunction with that transit effort, but once it was killed there was a delay of several years in jump-starting the transportation and utility work.
For nearly a century until 2010, Columbia Pike in Arlington was under control of the Virginia Department of Transportation. That year, in advance of the proposed streetcar project, the state agency transferred authority over the roadway to the county government. VDOT retains a say in what happens at several key crossings, as a number of intersecting roads remain under state control.
