construction | ALXnow

City Manager Directs Staff to Make $100 Million in Budget Cuts

Published March 24, 2020 at 3:15PM | Updated March 25, 2020 at 2:37AM

Alexandria City Manager Mark Jinks said Monday that the COVID-19 pandemic has created the worst financial crisis he’s ever seen, and has asked staff to make $100 million in budget cuts and prepare for a $35 million revenue shortfall in his fiscal year 2021 budget.

“We crashed, and we don’t know how long this is going to last, when we’re going to come back up,” Jinks told the City Council/School Board Subcommittee in an online meeting. “I’ve told staff we need $100 million in cuts and savings between the current fiscal year and next fiscal year, is my rough guess. That will be savings and looking at capital projects and seeing what we need to cancel or what we need to reschedule to a future year.”

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City Rethinking Waterfront Plan, Other Capital Projects Amid Rising Construction Costs

By James Cullum

Published March 4, 2020 at 2:20PM | Updated March 4, 2020 at 2:58PM

A screenshot of a video from city council's Capital Improvement Program work session on Feb. 26 at City Hall. (Image via City of Alexandria)

Rising regional construction costs and are making Alexandria planners rethink a number of capital improvements, including the city’s extensive waterfront plan.

“We are in a highly volatile construction market, and it has been very challenging,” Deputy City Manager Emily Baker told city council in a budget work session on Feb. 26. “And it’s been very challenging for us to keep coming to you and saying, ‘Well, you know, we thought the project was going to cost X and now it’s going to cost some multiple of X.'”

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North Old Town Neighbors Rattled by Construction at Old Colony Inn

By Vernon Miles

Published February 27, 2020 at 9:30AM | Updated February 27, 2020 at 10:38AM

Abingdon Place construction site (Staff photo by Jay Westcott)

(Updated 10:35 a.m.) Residents of the Liberty Row condominium community in North Old Town are upset that construction at the nearby Abingdon Place development has been shaking their walls.

“We’ve received several complaints from [other Liberty Row residents],” said Nathan Collins, a resident of Liberty Row and a member of the Liberty Row Condominium Association. “I contacted the city but basically got shuffled from department to department.”

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City Threatens to Go ‘Back to Market’ Over Southern Access at Potomac Yard Metro

By Vernon Miles

Published February 26, 2020 at 11:45AM | Updated February 26, 2020 at 12:05PM

After months of stalled discussions over the cost of adding southern access to the Potomac Yard Metro station, Mayor Justin Wilson said the city could start the process of financing it over again.

The Potomac Yard Metrorail Implementation Work Group “expressed a great amount of frustration at the amount of time we have spent working with WMATA and their contractor to come to an agreement on a potential change order for improved southwest access,” Wilson said at the City Council meeting last night (Tuesday). “The message that was crystal clear from PYMIG was to set a date to have pencils down regardless of where we’re at and pursue going back to market to bid out the improved southwest access.”

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Alexandria May Spend Millions Repairing Damaged Portions of Holmes Run Trail

By ALXnow.com

Published February 26, 2020 at 9:30AM | Updated February 26, 2020 at 12:09PM

Detour for Holmes Run trail (Staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Alexandria may allocate $6 million to reopen closed portions of the Holmes Run Trail.

The trail, which was damaged in last July’s flash flooding after the Barcroft Dam overflowed, in addition to previous flood damage from 2018, is currently closed in four sections. City Manager Mark Jinks has proposed new capital funding to reopen all four sections.

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King Street Metro Access Improvement Project Delayed, City Evaluating New Timeline

By James Cullum

Published February 6, 2020 at 4:05PM | Updated February 7, 2020 at 12:13AM

The King Street-Old Town Metro Access Improvements project. (Staff photo by James Cullum)

The completion date for the King Street-Old Town Metro Access Improvements Project has been delayed, but it’s not clear for how long.

The project, which has nearly completely taken over the entrance to the Metro station, redirected bus bays and eliminated the metered parking and kiss & ride areas.

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Local Stream Set For Revitalization Over the Next Year

By Vernon Miles

Published January 9, 2020 at 3:30PM

Taylor Run (photo via City of Alexandria)

Taylor Run stream in pretty bad shape, but the City of Alexandria wants to revitalize it into a healthy stream rich with native vegetation.

“It’s in the design phase right now,” said Jesse Maines, division chief for Stormwater Management. Maines estimated the design was about halfway completed, but the department is still reaching out to local stakeholders and continuing internal discussions about the eventual design.

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Morning Notes

By ALXnow.com

Published December 3, 2019 at 6:30AM | Updated December 3, 2019 at 9:00AM

Work Starts on Potomac Yard Metro — “Monday afternoon workers prepared to clear brush and deliver fill for the new Potomac Yard Metro Station… Environmentalists are against the project because it calls for work in nearly 4-acres of wetlands north of Potomac Greens Drive and west of the George Washington Parkway. A permit was approved for the wetlands work on November 15.” [WJLA, Twitter/@ABC7TimBarber, Alexandria Times]

Crash on Telegraph Road — Alexandria police and firefighters responded to a potentially serious crash along Telegraph Road at Duke Street around noon on Monday. A driver, initially reported to be trapped and bleeding from the head, was rushed to a local hospital. [Twitter/@AlexandriaNow]

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Potomac Yard Metro Finishes Permitting, Moves Into Construction Phase

By Vernon Miles

Published November 22, 2019 at 10:40AM | Updated November 22, 2019 at 1:38PM

(Updated at 1:40 p.m.) With the acquisition of a Clean Waters Act permit, the Potomac Yard Metro station has been cleared to start construction.

On Friday, Nov. 15, the Army Corps of Engineers issued the final permit required for construction on the Metro station to start in the wetlands, staff said at a Nov. 19 meeting. The announcement was followed by a small round of applause from the Potomac Yard Metrorail Implementation Work Group (PYMIG), a group that’s been meeting since 2011 to consider issues related to opening a Metro station in Potomac Yard.

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Morning Notes

By ALXnow.com

Published November 5, 2019 at 8:00AM

APD Officer Saves Man’s Life — “Last month, Alexandria Police Department Lieutenant Mike Kochis responded to a call in the Carlyle area and found an unconscious middle-aged man lying on the sidewalk… The man’s symptoms lined up with an opioid overdose, so Kochis turned the man on his side and sprayed a dose of Narcan into his nose.” [City of Alexandria]

Local Bride Meets Girl Whose Life She Saved — “Sarah Aiken from Alexandria was practicing walking down the pretend aisle in the back of the restaurant in Annapolis before her wedding rehearsal dinner. ‘I looked to the left and saw this family, her blond hair and I knew exactly who they were.’ Fourteen-year-old Kinley Strohl had flown in with her family from Ohio to attend the wedding of the woman who had given her a bone marrow donation seven years ago and saved her life.” [Gazette Packet]

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Construction Continues on Wegmans and Carlyle Crossing Development

By Airey

Published October 25, 2019 at 11:30AM | Updated October 25, 2019 at 2:30PM

(Updated 2:30 p.m.) Work on the new Wegmans in Alexandria is progressing as construction crews dig downwards.

Cranes and workers could be seen on the site near the Eisenhower Metro today (Thursday) that now resembles a five-acre dug-out after construction on the future $400 million mixed-use development kicked off in August, as reported by Alexandria Living Magazine.