VRE expects construction contract for Potomac Shores station by Winter 2021

It’s been nearly six years since former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe broke ground for a new Virginia Railway Express station at Potomac Shores.

To date, nothing has been built where the station is supposed to go, on a bluff overlooking the Potomac River along VRE’s Fredericksburg line, between the Quantico and Rippon stations. During a meeting of the OmniRide Board of Commissioners on Thursday, Dec. 5, Maureen Caddigan pressed acting VRE CEO Rich Dalton on the progress of the new station.

Dalton told the commission the station is still in the design phase, essentially where it’s been since we broke the news in March 2018 the project would move ahead after years of delay. Local officials blamed the feds for the delay, for not funding the construction of a third track from Arkendale, north into Prince William County, which would have separated VRE trains from CSX freight trains that own the existing tracks.

Dalton said they’re about 60% through the design phase of the project, and that expects the agency will solicit construction bids next summer 2020, and for a construction contract to be awarded by winter 2021.

“We anticipate it will go relatively quickly from the 60% side to the 90% side,” said Dalton.

Caddigan is retiring from the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, and from her seat on the OmniRide Commission.

“I’ll be relying on [incomding Supervisors Margaret Franklin (Woodbridge District) and Andrea Bailey (Potomac District)], they both share Potomac shores, and I’m going to urge them to stay on it,” said Caddigan.

Potomac Shores is a planned mixed-use community near Dumfries that includes homes, a planned business district and hotel, and a golf course. Its developer, California-based SunCal is slated to fund the construction of the new station that now has a price tag that ballooned to over $20 million since the project’s groundbreaking in 2014.