Northern Virginia Transportation Authority
Duke Street Transitway area map.
The Northern Virginia Transportation Authority is recommending full funding for 15 major projects, including the Duke Street Transitway in Alexandria.
This spring, NVTA considered 41 projects in a competitive process for $522 million in funding after the organization issued a Call for Regional Transportation Projects in July 2019. NVTA conducted a public comment period, reviews about 1,000 public comments and reviewed the projects, which requested $1.44 billion in funding.
(You can visit the FY2020-2025 Six Year Program webpage and click on the Public Engagement and Recommendation Phases to view staff recommendations for project funding and a summary of public comments.)
The Duke Street Transitway was the City of Alexandria's only request to the NVTA and the cost is estimated at $87 million. Alexandria received $12 million already, so this funding request is for the remaining $75 million.
The Duke Street Transitway application requests funding for "stations/shelters, buses, limited ROW, and utility relocation. It includes dedicated transit lanes along the corridor where six lanes exist today (between Landmark Mall and Jordan St. and between Roth St. and Diagonal Rd.). In the remaining section of Duke St. (between Jordan St and Roth St., transit will operate in mixed flow, and include queue jump lanes, and Transit Signal Priority (TSP) along the entire corridor to improve speed/reliability. The project will include new stations and pedestrian access and safety improvements at transit stations/intersections, and bike facilities as feasible."
NVTA staff recommend fully funding 15 of the 41 candidate transportation projects. This recommended funding provides sufficient funds for these projects to advance to construction and be completed without any additional funds. NVTA staff also recommend partially funding an additional 4 candidate projects. (See the projects and more information on an interactive map here.)
The Bus Rapid Transit project along Richmond Highway/Route 1 in Southeast Fairfax County does not rank in the top 15 funded projects.
The next steps: NVTA staff will present project recommendations to three committees, which in turn, provide final comments and their own recommendations later in June. An updated recommendation will be posted on the NVTA website by June 24, and will be considered by the full Authority at its regularly scheduled business meeting on July 9. The Authority is anticipated to take action to adopt the FY2020-2025 Six Year Program during the July meeting.
