Springfield Garage Project Gets Underway With Groundbreaking

SPRINGFIELD, VA — Construction on the Springfield Community Business Center Commuter Parking Garage will get underway after a groundbreaking last Thursday.

County officials joined community partners and other stakeholders for the groundbreaking on the six-level parking garage at Old Keene Mill Road and Springfield Boulevard. The parking garage will be located on an existing county-owned Old Keene Mill Road park-and-ride lot.

The Springfield garage will have approximately 1,000 parking spaces with a bus transit center and seven bus bays, slugging spaces, pick-up and drop-off parking spaces, a pedestrian bridge over Old Keene Mill Road connecting to Springfield Plaza, bicycle storage, and community gathering areas on the ground level and roof. The estimated completion date is spring 2023.

During construction, slugging locations have been relocated to the Springfield Town Center Frontier Garage and Springfield United Methodist Church.

A commuter garage serving as a multi-modal transportation center is in the county's comprehensive plan for Springfield's business district. The project was developed in years prior when Chairman Jeff McKay was Lee District supervisor. According to McKay, the site used to host a number of closed, boarded up businesses that are now demolished: Long John Silver's, Chi-Chi's, Bob's Big Boy, Shoney's, Circuit City, and a gas station. He noted the county's desire to change the first impression of boarded-up buildings as people entered central Springfield.

Planning involved numerous community meetings and outspoken residents who McKay said made the project better.

"What it did was result in a much better project that really walked a tightrope between a lot of community competing needs, both users of slugs, but also people who want to ride buses, people who want to use transit, folks who want to come to the facility for community gatherings, people who want to celebrate the arts and improve the image and the gateway to central Springfield, people who want to simply just rideshare," said McKay. "All of those things are important, and we wanted to make sure we could accommodate all of them in this project."

The new parking garage will instead have artwork along the pedestrian bridge welcoming people to Springfield.

Supervisor Rodney Lusk highlighted the pedestrian bridge's importance for safety and the spaces for community events at the ground level and upper level. He envisions movie nights on the roof, food trucks on site and other opportunities.

"This asset is going to solve some of the most persistent transportation issues here in Springfield at the same time provide a one-of-a-kind meeting space," said Lusk.

The estimated project cost is $63.81 million with funding from the Federal Transit Agency, the federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program, and the Fairfax County Commercial and Industrial Tax.

Visit the Springfield Community Business Center Commuter Parking Garage web page for more information and future updates.