Arlington County staff are seeking state funding to replace an old elevator at the Courthouse Metro station with two up-to-date lifts.
It could be a decade before the multimillion-dollar proposal becomes reality.
County transportation staff have ranked an $11.7 million request for new elevators as the third top priority among 13 requests totaling $115.7 million.
If County Board members agree later this month, the package will go to the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority. Individual items will be considered for funding in the fiscal year 2030-31 timeframe.
Getting design funds in five years makes it likely the elevator project wouldn’t be completed until about 2035, county staff told members of the Transportation Commission on Thursday.
However, it’s possible that the NVTA and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (MWATA) could fast-track the new elevators.
“I hope that WMATA’s new focus on improving service on the already built [transit] network rather than expansion might accelerate that,” commission chair Ajdin Muratovic said.
The Courthouse Metro station opened in 1979 and the lone elevator taking riders from street level to the Metro station is, in the words of one county staffer, “creaky.” Still, it’s a vital link for riders who cannot use escalators.
The proposed improvement project would result in the installation of two high-speed elevators that would whisk riders up and down at 350 feet per minute.
NVTA issues a “Call for Regional Transportation Projects” every two years. Applications from local governments and transit agencies were due Aug. 15, and formal support for local projects by the governing body of a jurisdiction is required by Oct. 31.
The two projects ranked higher on the county’s priorities list, which won unanimous support of the Transportation Commission, involved S. George Mason Drive.
Rated as highest priority is a $36 million proposal for multimodal improvements between Columbia Pike and S. Four Mile Run Drive, resulting in a new roadway section with two travel lanes in each direction and a 12-foot-wide trail.
Second highest priority is an $8.5 million design request to improve the “six-legged” intersection at S. George Mason Drive and S. Four Mile Run Drive and to create of a new bridge over the intersection for users of the W&OD Regional Trail.
Transportation Commission vice chair Justin Fuhrmann said he was “very excited” to see these projects atop the priority list. The upgrades would improve a stretch of roadway that is a challenge for drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists alike, he said.
“It’s a true weakness we have” in the transportation network, Fuhrmann said.
Other projects on the list, in descending order of priority, include:
- $10 million for intersection improvements at S. Glebe Road and W. Glebe Road
- $5 million for intersection improvements at N. Glebe Road and N. Quincy Street/Henderson Road
- $2 million for multimodal improvements on S. Eads Street
- $5 million for design of a multi-user trail between Virginia Route 110 and Arlington National Cemetery
- $3 million for intersection improvements at S. Glebe Road and 7th Street S.
- $15 million for design and construction of a trail on the north side of Arlington Blvd between N. Granada Street and N. Jackson Street
- $10 million for intersection improvements at N. Glebe Road and the I-66 westbound off-ramp
- $2.4 million for widening and modernization of the Custis Trail
- $2.5 million for upgrades to bus-information technology for riders
- $4.6 million for the second and third phases of the county’s performance-parking initiative
