Road closures will resume around Alexandria Union Station (110 Callahan Drive) starting tonight (Thursday) as Virginia Railway Express continues bridge work over King Street and Commonwealth Avenue.
King Street will be closed between Russell Road and Daingerfield Road from 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 28 through 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, June 3. Commonwealth Avenue will remain open with a single alternating lane controlled by a flagger. Sunset Drive will remain open. Traffic detours run on Duke Street.
The sidewalk connecting King Street to the Alexandria Union Station tunnel under the rail bridge will be closed on both sides, while the Commonwealth Avenue sidewalk will remain open. Detour signage is posted to direct pedestrians. The stairs from the east platform of Alexandria Union Station to King Street remain closed until construction ends.
The next and final road closures for the project are tentatively planned for mid- to late June.
The closure will require VRE to operate on an S+ schedule from Friday, May 29 and Monday, June 1 to Wednesday, June 3. The VRE project does not affect Metro service at the adjacent King Street-Old Town station, which runs on a different track system than VRE and Amtrak.
VRE is working on replacing rail bridges over King Street and Commonwealth Avenue and making upgrades at Alexandria Union Station. Other project components include reconstructing station platforms, constructing new ADA-compliant elevators, replacing the existing pedestrian tunnel and stairs connecting to the center platform, and removing the existing at-grade pedestrian crossing.
According to VRE, temporary bridges supporting the rail are being installed over three weekends in May. The temporary jump spans will allow new bridge foundations to be built under the existing ones without disrupting the road. In May, VRE also opened a new section of temporary platform on Track 1 at Alexandria Union Station for passenger boarding and alighting, joining platforms on Tracks 2 and 3.
The project is being coordinated with the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority’s Alexandria Fourth Track Project and the city’s King Street and Commonwealth improvements. The Long Bridge Project is also underway to boost rail capacity between D.C. and Virginia.
