Alexandria leaders cut the ribbon today (Wednesday) on RiverRenew, the city’s largest infrastructure project in history.
The project replaces Old Town’s 19th-century combined sewer system with a 12-foot-wide, two-mile-long waterfront tunnel system and sewer infrastructure to divert approximately 120 million gallons of raw sewage from flowing into the Potomac River every year.
A road closure and pedestrian detour for a Virginia Railway Express rail project around Alexandria Union Station (110 Callahan Drive) will resume starting tomorrow (Thursday).
King Street will be closed between Russell Road and Daingerfield Road starting 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 18 until around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, June 24. Commonwealth Avenue will remain open with an alternating single lane directed by flaggers. Sunset Drive will remain open. A detour is available via Callahan Drive, Duke Street and Diagonal Road.
With minimal discussion on Saturday (June 13), Alexandria City Council voted to move forward with an “enhanced gravity storm sewer system” to combat flooding along the waterfront in Old Town.
The City Council action was taken four months after the National Park Service denied the city’s plan to build a pump station at Waterfront Park (1 Prince Street). The city’s previously approved proposal would have closed Waterfront Park and Point Lumley Park from the fall of 2026 until the fall of 2028 to rebuild segments of the sea wall and to install the pump station to recirculate water in flood-prone areas back to the Potomac River. The denial by NPS forced the city to make “significant modifications” to the plan, project manager Matt Landis told Council.
The Alexandria City Council on Saturday unanimously greenlit construction and financing plans to redevelop the shuttered Potomac River Generating Station in Old Town North.
City Council approved property owner HRP Group’s plan to develop the first phase (Blocks B and C) of the six-block, 19-acre project with mixed-use apartment and retail buildings, create more than 10 acres of public open space and convert an old pump house into a community amenity. City Council also approved a $135 million financing deal for the project, which HRP Group says will catalyze more than $2 billion in private investment into the site. Deconstruction of the former power plant could begin as early as next year and is expected to take up to 20 months.
Four years after the demolition of Landmark Mall, Alexandria officials and developers broke ground today (June 8) on the first residential building project for the 52-acre WestEnd site.
Alexandria Mayor Alyia Gaskins was joined by many City Council members, as well as leaders from Foulger Pratt, Howard Hughes Communities and Silverstein Properties for the groundbreaking of the Aspect buildings at 5801 Duke Street. The seven-story Aspect will be connected by a sky bridge, which will also be used for the property’s fitness center, Foulger Pratt says.
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.
Plans to redevelop the shuttered Potomac River Generating Station in Old Town North are heading to the Alexandria Planning Commission and City Council next month.
The Planning Commission will get the first crack at the massive proposal to convert the 18-acre site at 1300 N. Royal Street into a mixed-use development at its meeting on Tuesday, June 2, followed by a City Council public hearing June 13. City Council will also be presented with a $135 million financing deal for the project June 9 (Tuesday), which property owner HRP Group says will catalyze more than $2 billion in private investment into the site. City Council will hold a public hearing for the financing agreement on Saturday, June 13.
The Virginia Railway Express is postponing the next of its road closures to accommodate rail bridge work near Alexandria Union Station (110 Callahan Drive).
Construction on the two replacement rail bridge spans over King Street and Commonwealth Avenue has been rescheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Friday, May 29, running through 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 2. King Street will be fully closed between Russell Road and Daingerfield Road during construction. Traffic will be detoured to Duke Street, and Commonwealth Avenue will remain open with a single travel lane with alternating traffic directed by flaggers. Sunset Drive will remain fully open.
One Alexandria man and three Maryland men face felony theft charges after being arrested for allegedly stealing approximately $100,000 in copper piping from the Inova Alexandria Hospital at Landmark construction site, according to a police search warrant affidavit.
Around 9 p.m. Saturday, April 11, a construction supervisor at the site called the Alexandria Police Department to report that the lock on a gate leading into the construction site had been cut and that more than $10,000 in tools had been stolen in the early morning hours of April 5. The construction manager later reported that more than $10,000 in tools had also been stolen the previous night, April 10.
The owner of a small historic home in Old Town wants to demolish and replace it with a three-level townhouse.
The Board of Architectural Review will consider the proposal at its meeting June 3. The one-story building at 1126 Prince Street is only 22 feet wide by 40 feet deep, and its use has shifted from residential to commercial and back over the years. The building was constructed in 1830 and was assessed at $117,855 earlier this year. The 1,700-square-foot lot was assessed at $385,951, putting the total property value at just over half a million dollars.
Alexandria will host a pre-construction meeting on Monday (May 11) ahead of several months of planned construction on a section of Route 1 in Old Town.
The city says that its South Patrick Street Median Improvement Project will “improve pedestrian safety and improve connectivity between the Southwest Quadrant neighborhood and Old Town Alexandria east of South Patrick Street (US Route 1).” The project, totaling nearly $4.3 million, is expected to break ground on June 1 and wrap up in late January 2027, according to a meeting description.
