ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Changes have been made to the design of a planned new commuter parking garage in Springfield and it could mean more space for sluggers.
The updates were presented at a community meeting Monday night at Edison High School in Alexandria.
Fairfax County will build the six-level garage with more than 1,000 spaces at the site of what is currently a surface parking lot at Old Keene Mill Road and Springfield Boulevard.
A previous design included space for two slug lines where six cars could load passengers simultaneously in each line.
After getting feedback from the slugging community, that design has changed significantly.
“We’ve got two commuter slug line loading zones. One can load 18 cars at a time. One can load 15 cars at time … and then each of those lanes has an additional 4 car queuing capacity,” explained Michael Guarino with the Fairfax County Department of Transportation.
Construction of the garage is scheduled to start in late 2019 and finish in spring of 2022.
The slug lines and parking that operate at the site now will have to be relocated during construction, but it hasn’t been decided yet exactly where they will move.
“Springfield has lived through the Mixing Bowl project, so by comparison this is very minor. But if you’re a slugger it is going to be disruptive. So our goal is to make sure we have alternatives set up for people so that slugging can continue,” said County Supervisor Jeff McKay, who represents the area.
More community meetings and updates are planned.
The $70 million cost of the project will largely be paid for with federal grant money, with the rest coming from a tax on county businesses.
