For years, the city of Arlington, the U.S. Department of the Army, and the Virginia Department of Transportation attempted to figure out how to realign the roads to maximize acreage in Arlington National Cemetery. And it seems all parties have finally figured out a way to expand the cemetery over 70 acres, adding 60,000 burial sites, including an Air Force Memorial, while also improving the roads. This project will allow the cemetery to continue burials through the 2050s. It will also provide space for a 9/11 Pentagon Memorial Visitor Education Center to be built.
The main way this will be accomplished? Using the former Navy Annex site along Columbia Pike to expand the cemetery, and realigning the road so that all the land south can be repurposed for what the Army calls “public facility needs”–a new multi-use trail next to the cemetery, a new tunnel between the cemetery and its new maintenance compound for easier access to utilities, bike facilities, and more walking areas for pedestrians.
By default, this project will improve Columbia Pike’s roadway, with the goal being to turn it into an improved main road for biking, walking, taking the bus, and of course, driving to Arlington National Cemetery. Columbia Pike will be rebuilt as a four-lane road with a sidewalk and shared-use path, as well as enhanced lighting, improved landscaping, and moving utilities underground to make it easier for pedestrians and drivers alike to reach the Arlington National Cemetery. The expansion will realign Columbia Pike from the east of South Oak Street to Washington Boulevard, remove part of Southgate Road, and will modify the intersection at South Joyce Street and Columbia Pike/Washington Boulevard, along with replacing Southgate Road with a newly built section of South Nash Street.
The finishing touch on this project–which won’t happen for a few years–is a 9/11 Pentagon Memorial Visitor Education Center, which will be built when the expansion project is complete. Plans for the center show a large, sleek building with a rooftop terrace and generous parking area. Inside, “interactive biographies” of the people who died at the Pentagon on 9/11 and various exhibits will be on display.
The center is already planning for a 2025 opening, and construction is expected to start once this Arlington National Cemetery Expansion Project is complete, which is expected to be late 2023.
Feature image, © Dallas/stock.adobe.com
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