Virginia is making a huge financial commitment to the transformation of U.S. Route 1 as it runs through Crystal City, fulfilling a key promise officials made to Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) to lure the tech giant to Arlington.
The Commonwealth Transportation Board, a panel that manages state transportation funding and policy, voted unanimously Wednesday to allocate $134.4 million to fund the highway’s overhaul through 2028. The project, designed to bring at least some portion of the newly renamed Richmond Highway down to grade and make it more friendly to pedestrians, has a total estimated price tag of roughly $180 million.
The exact look of the work is still being hashed out. The Virginia Department of Transportation wrapped up the first phase of a $4 million study of the project last month, and will soon launch a second phase dedicated to finalizing the road’s new design. But the move to allocate the majority of the project’s funding provides some needed certainty about where the money will come from.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Alex Koma over at Washington Business Journal
