ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The plans to build Amazon’s new headquarters in Virginia are getting a lot more real. 25,000 jobs are slated to descend on our area over the next ten years. Some of those workers will be in a never-before-seen office building.
Some will get to work through a new Metro station, just given the go-ahead.
It has been talked about for decades. Now, crews are about to break ground on a new Metro station. The City of Alexandria says you could ride through the Potomac Yard Metro starting in 2022.
The Army Corps of Engineers gave just gave the city the last permit it was waiting on.
Monica Backmon heads the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, which is helping fund the $320 million project. Amazon says 25,000 new jobs are coming to Arlington and Alexandria over the next ten years.
Backmon stressed in February that the station is only one way to keep people moving so everybody doesn’t suffer.
"One thing we know in Northern Virginia is there's no single solution that will really address congestion," Backmon said. "We look at transit, we look at bike lanes, we look at sidewalks because depending on where you are, that dictates the solution."
New workers will go to new buildings, being developed by JBG Smith of Bethesda. The company just submitted plans for 101 12th Street in Arlington, nine new stories of office space with stores on the street level.
Kanti Srikanth of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments says he’s confident the region can handle Amazon’s new headquarters.
"It's not a doomsday scenario from a transportation perspective, not at all," Srikanth said. "I'm not worried about one Amazon coming, I'm planning on many, many more Amazon's coming."
Potomac Yard Metro will be on the Blue and Yellow lines. Alexandria City officials hoped it would be finished in 2021, but now that’s been pushed back.
Crews will break ground on the new Metro station on December 19th.