Plans for a new $177 million west entrance to the Ballston Metro station are beginning to solidify.
Proposed plans for the project, meant to reduce congestion and improve access to areas west of the station, were published last month.
They depict an additional entrance with a new stairway at the southwest corner of Fairfax Drive and N. Vermont Street, about a quarter mile west of the existing entrance.
Other proposed additions to the station — which currently sees about 5,975 daily boardings — and its surroundings include the following.
- Two new street-level elevators
- A new underground chamber with ticket machines and fare gates
- A new pedestrian tunnel between the mezzanine and the station platform
- A new platform mezzanine including two staircases and two elevators for the inbound platform, as well as two staircases and a single elevator for the outbound platform
- A new crosswalk across Fairfax Drive
- An improved crosswalk across N. Vermont Street with reconstructed curb ramps
A public hearing on the project is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, Dec. 10 at 6:30 p.m. at Arlington Central Library (1015 N. Quincy Street).
“The new entrance would improve access to areas west of the station, provide additional egress capacity during emergency situations, improve bus-to-Metrorail transfers, relieve congestion at the current station entrance to the east, and improve passenger distribution on the train platform,” a recently published environmental evaluation says.
Construction is currently projected to begin in the summer of 2026 and last through summer 2029.
During construction of the pedestrian tunnel, two lanes on eastbound Fairfax Drive would be fully closed to traffic. Additionally, parking along eastbound Fairfax Drive between N. Glebe Road and N. Utah Street would be temporarily removed.
Occasional disruptions to Metro and bus service in Ballston are also possible.
“Detours would be implemented to allow for continuous travel around the Project area; detour routes are currently being considered and would be refined to minimize potential delays,” the project’s environmental evaluation says.
The second Ballston station entrance project is one of the biggest-ticket items on the county’s 2025-2034 Capital Improvement Plan, It combines funding from several sources, including an $80 million grant from the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority in 2022.
Securing funds has been a long and somewhat uncertain process. Back in 2018, some Arlington officials worried that it could be delayed indefinitely after the NVTA passed over the project in a six-year funding plan.
Ballooning costs have contributed to delays on the proposed entrance, which had an estimated price tag of just $130 million in 2019.
While plans for this project have yet to be finalized, construction on a similar project in Crystal City recently got underway.
The planned new east entrance to the Crystal City Metro station broke ground in July. That project is slightly less pricey than the one in Ballston, ringing in at $146.1 million.
