Long Bridge North — Potomac River Passenger Rail Crossing

The Virginia Passenger Rail Authority has a builder for the hardest piece of its Long Bridge program. A Skanska and FlatironDragados joint venture won the roughly $1 billion contract to build Long Bridge North, a new two-track rail crossing over the Potomac between Arlington and Washington. Construction starts this summer.

Project Scope
Long Bridge North puts a dedicated passenger-rail span next to the existing century-old bridge that CSX freight and Amtrak share today. The roughly one-mile alignment runs from East Potomac Park to the L’Enfant interlocking on the D.C. side, carrying two new tracks plus the approach structures and track ties that let passenger trains stop sharing pinch points with freight. It’s the marquee civil package in a broader program to double capacity across the river.

Why It Matters
The old Long Bridge is the chokepoint for the whole Northeast-to-Southeast passenger corridor. One shared two-track bridge forces Amtrak, Virginia’s state-supported trains, and CSX freight to take turns, and there’s no slack left. Separating passenger traffic onto its own structure is what unlocks the frequency gains Virginia has been buying up right-of-way for. The award also lands during a busy stretch for big U.S. rail-bridge work, and it keeps the region’s largest passenger-rail expansion in decades on schedule.

Project Team & Details