Release Date: Oct 4, 2022

Arlington County Identifies a Recommended Preferred Alternative for CC2DCA; National Landing BID Celebrates Critical Milestone in the Approval Process

The milestone marks significant progress towards making the walkable, bikeable connection linking Crystal City to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport a reality

ARLINGTON, VA - OCTOBER 4, 2022 - Today, Arlington County announced significant progress in the federal approval process for the Crystal City to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Multimodal Connection project (CC2DCA), a transformational project to create a context-sensitive, multimodal connection between Crystal City and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) for use by walkers, bikers, and micro-mobility users. When complete, CC2DCA will make National Landing the only downtown in the country with a short, direct pedestrian and bike connection to an airport, creating a considerable competitive advantage and further enhancing economic development in Northern Virginia.

As part of today’s announcement, Arlington County has identified a recommended preferred alternative alignment and facility type for the connection: a bridge stretching from the planned VRE rail station at 2011 Crystal Drive to Terminal B/C at National Airport providing a direct connection between Crystal Drive, the relocated VRE Station at National Landing Station, the Mount Vernon Trail and DCA. Once completed, the journey from the foot of the bridge in Crystal City to the newly constructed security check point at Terminal 2 at DCA would be about 1,300 feet or less than a five-minute walk.

“We at the National Landing BID are thrilled by the considerable progress made towards making CC2DCA a reality and we applaud Arlington and Virginia’s commitment to delivering this next generation mobility project,” said Tracy Sayegh Gabriel, President and Executive Director, National Landing BID. “As CC2DCA advances to the next phase of the approval process, we look forward to working with Arlington County, other local stakeholders, and the community to ensure a robust community dialogue yields the very best design and project outcome.”

Arlington County also announced the next virtual public meeting on the project scheduled for Tuesday, October 25th. The meeting will provide additional detail on the identified recommended preferred alternative and commence a feedback process through which the public can comment on the project. Depending on the feedback, Arlington County projects a confirmation of preferred alternative by spring of 2023 with the planning process wrapping up and entering the design phase by the end of the calendar year.

Initially conceived by the National Landing BID in 2017 and listed as one of five transportation projects included in the 2018 agreement to bring Amazon’s HQ2 to Virginia, CC2DCA already has over $38 million in committed funds, with Arlington County projecting delivery in 2028.

CC2DCA is one of many interconnected transportation projects that are a part of Mobility Next – National Landing’s vision for creating the nation’s most connected downtown. Alongside the planned improvements that include a new Crystal City East Metro entrance, and the relocation of the VRE Station, CC2DCA will help National Landing become a multimodal hub poised to attract additional rail service operations, such as Amtrak and expanded regional commuter rail, and new businesses and economic opportunities to the region.

For more information on CC2DCA, upcoming meetings, and opportunities to provide feedback on the project, please visit Arlington County’s project website.