Cones, detours, and overnight crews: Your guide to road and transit work across Alexandria right now

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — There may not be a quiet stretch of pavement left in the city. Between the Department of Transportation and Environmental Services' annual repaving season, a Virginia Department of Transportation overnight project on I-395, a National Park Service mill-and-pave on the George Washington Memorial Parkway, weekend bridge work tied to Alexandria Union Station, the imminent kickoff of an eight-month median rebuild on South Patrick Street, and a Metro weekend shutdown that closes the city's newest station, transportation construction is touching nearly every corner of Alexandria this spring.

Here is a recap of the major projects The Alexandria Brief has covered, what's coming next, and what residents and drivers need to know.

This weekend: Metro closes three Alexandria-adjacent stations

The most immediate disruption is on the rails. The city shared a reminder Thursday that Metro's Crystal City Project resumes this weekend, with free shuttle buses replacing trains between Pentagon City and Braddock Road on Saturday, May 9 and Sunday, May 10. Crystal City, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Potomac Yard stations will all be closed.

The May 9–10 shutdown is one of three "extended" weekends in a 10-weekend program that began in February. The closures are necessary for construction of a second entrance at Crystal City station, a joint project with Arlington County that is expected to open in spring 2027. On the three extended weekends, WMATA also performs track maintenance that pushes the closure zone south to Braddock Road. The third and final extended weekend is May 16–17.

Outside the closed stations, Blue and Yellow line trains will run roughly every 12 minutes in split segments. Blue line trains will operate between Franconia-Springfield and Braddock Road, and between Pentagon City and Downtown Largo. Yellow line trains will run between Huntington and Braddock Road, and between Pentagon City and Greenbelt, with no Yellow trips turning at Mt. Vernon Square. Riders heading north out of Alexandria will need to exit their train at Braddock Road, board a shuttle through the gap, and catch another train at Pentagon City.

Weekend rail hours run 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. Saturday and 6 a.m. to midnight Sunday. The Red, Green, Orange and Silver lines are also affected by separate work — the Red line will single-track between Silver Spring and Forest Glen for tunnel leak repairs — but Green, Orange and Silver are running normal service.

City repaving season: 50 lane miles and counting

Alexandria's annual repaving program launched April 20 and is scheduled to run through November. The Department of Transportation and Environmental Services oversees more than 561 lane miles of roadway, sidewalks and alleys, and resurfaces about 50 lane miles each year. Crews also patch roughly 5,000 potholes annually and bring curb ramps into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act as part of the work.

Sixteen streets made the initial phase of this year's schedule. Thirteen of them — including Hillside Terrace, Summit Avenue, Jamieson Avenue, North and South Peyton Street, Old Dominion Boulevard, LaVerne Avenue, Rapidan Court, Holmes Run Parkway, Hawthorne Avenue, West Bellefonte Avenue, Hatton Court and West Abingdon Drive — were on the books between April 27 and May 1.

The week of May 4 added another batch: East and West Abingdon Drive from Washington Street to the end, Hatton Court from Doris Drive to the city limits, and Madison Street from North Columbus Street to Washington Street. Three of those four are on the city's FY 2026 Capital Street Resurfacing Program; Madison Street is being handled through routine maintenance.

Speed cushions are also being installed this week on Martha Custis Drive and Gunston Road.

Normal city paving hours run 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., though some work on heavily traveled corridors will be done overnight. Streets reopen each evening for parking and through traffic, but "No Parking" signs go up in advance, and the city has been blunt that drivers who ignore them risk towing.

Looking further out, the proposed FY 2027–2036 Capital Improvement Program lays out roughly $20.6 million in street reconstruction and resurfacing across FY 2027 through FY 2029. Higher-profile corridors on the FY 2028 list include King Street from Dangerfield Road to Fairfax Street, Seminary Road from North Beauregard Street to the city limits, and West Braddock Road from Quaker Lane to Van Dorn Street.

I-395 southbound: nightly lane closures through mid-June

Drivers heading south on I-395 between Shirlington Circle (Exit 6) and Duke Street/Route 236 (Exit 3) are losing lanes overnight from Sunday through Thursday, weather permitting, through mid-June. VDOT crews are using the closures for surface preparation in the first three weeks of the project, with milling and repaving in the final three.

The lane drops are staggered: one lane closes at 9:30 p.m., a second at 10 p.m., and as many as three are shut between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. Drivers should expect delays and plan alternate routes.

GW Parkway: paving and pedestrian crossings

The National Park Service began resurfacing the George Washington Memorial Parkway between Reagan National Airport and First Street in Alexandria on April 23. Crews are milling off the worn top layer in both directions and laying down new pavement overnight and on weekends, with work expected to continue through June.

The most disruptive piece for residents is the replacement of pedestrian crossing medians at Bashford Lane and Slaters Lane, which began the week of April 27 and closes each crossing for roughly a week at a time. At Bashford, two crosswalks are being shut down one at a time, with the adjacent bike lane closed in the work zone. At Slaters, the pedestrian crossing closes entirely, with detours posted. Crossings between North Washington Street and First Street are also affected during overnight and weekend paving.

Daytime rush-hour lane configurations have shifted as well. From 5:30 to 9:30 a.m. on weekdays, two northbound lanes and one southbound are open — favoring the commute into D.C. From 2:45 to 7:15 p.m., that flips to two southbound and one northbound. Outside those windows — from 7:15 p.m. to 5:30 a.m., and on weekends — one lane is open in each direction while milling and paving are underway. Periodic ramp closures entering and exiting the parkway should also be expected.

The Reagan-to-First Street resurfacing is one piece of a larger NPS bridge and pavement preservation program that began Nov. 17, 2025, and is expected to run into fall 2026. The broader program covers 24 bridges and more than 30 paved roads and parking assets across the George Washington Memorial Parkway, Clara Barton Parkway, and Spout Run Parkway. Under NPS rules, weekday lane closures on those parkways are not permitted inbound to D.C. from 5:30 to 9:30 a.m. or outbound from 2:30 to 7:30 p.m. — which is why the Alexandria daytime work uses lane shifts to preserve two lanes in the peak direction rather than full closures.

Mount Vernon Avenue bridge: off-peak closures May 16–23

A second bridge project lands squarely on Alexandria–Arlington commuters next week. The bridge carrying Arlington Ridge Road and Mount Vernon Avenue over Four Mile Run will close in both directions during off-peak hours from May 16 through May 23 while crews install five steel girders by crane, the Arlington County Department of Environmental Services announced.

Closure windows run 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. All traffic resumes outside those hours. There is no work or full-bridge closure scheduled for Sunday, May 17.

Metrobus A11 and A12 will detour via West Glebe Road during the closures, and stops on Mount Vernon Avenue between West Reed Avenue and South Glebe Road will be skipped during the closure windows.

The girder installation is part of the broader Arlington Ridge Road/Mount Vernon Avenue Bridge Reconstruction Project, a joint effort between Arlington County and the City of Alexandria. Construction began in summer 2025 and is expected to be completed in summer 2027. Crews are currently in Phase 1, demolishing and reconstructing the west side of the bridge — that phase runs through October 2026. One lane in each direction remains open and the east sidewalk remains open to pedestrians. The Four Mile Run Trail underpass on the Arlington side, north of the bridge, is closed for Phase 1, with trail traffic detoured via South Lang Street and South Glebe Road.

Worth noting: the May 16 girder work begins on the same Saturday Metro starts its final extended Crystal City closure weekend — meaning Del Ray and Mount Vernon Avenue residents who lose their nearest Metro station that morning will also lose a key bridge connection north during off-peak hours.

VRE bridges over King and Commonwealth: King Street to fully close on two more weekends

Virginia Railway Express, working with the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority and the city, is constructing two replacement bridge spans across King Street and Commonwealth Avenue as part of the Alexandria Station and Bridge Improvements Project. The work falls across three weekend windows. The first ran May 1–4 — but extended through Wednesday, May 6, when reopening finally took place two days later than scheduled. Two windows remain: May 15–18 and May 29–June 1.

The remaining weekends are scheduled to be more disruptive than the first was on paper. For the May 15–18 and May 29–June 1 windows, work begins at 7 a.m. Friday and runs until 10 p.m. Monday, with CSX restoring track service by 5 a.m. Tuesday. The first weekend, by contrast, was scheduled to start at 7 p.m. Friday — meaning the next two windows add roughly 12 hours of daytime weekday closure at the front end of each weekend. Whether they finish on schedule, given the first weekend's overrun, is another question.

During the closures:

King Street is fully closed between Russell Road and Daingerfield Road. Traffic is detoured to Duke Street.
Commonwealth Avenue stays open with a single alternating travel lane directed by flaggers.
Sunset Drive is open to local traffic only.
The sidewalk connecting King Street to the VRE station tunnel is closed on both sides under the bridge. The Commonwealth Avenue sidewalk stays open. Detour signage is posted for pedestrians.
The stairs from the east platform to King Street will be closed starting May 15.
No Metro service impacts. Overnight noise is expected to be limited.

The new bridges are designed to reduce maintenance, minimize service interruptions, meet current standards, and improve safety for pedestrians and motorists passing underneath.

South Patrick Street: eight months of work starts June 1

The biggest near-term project for Old Town's southwest quadrant is the U.S. Route 1 South Median Refuge Island Project, which covers South Patrick Street between Jefferson and Wolfe streets. The city will host a pre-construction community meeting from 7 to 8 p.m. on May 11 at the Nannie J. Lee Recreation Center, with a Zoom option, ahead of a June 1 start.

The work is scheduled to run through late January 2027. Construction hours will be 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays. The project will widen the median from four feet to nine, narrow travel lanes from 12 feet to 11, plant street trees, add pedestrian refuge islands at each intersection, and upgrade crosswalks, curb ramps and pedestrian signals. The design grew out of the 2018 South Patrick Street Housing Affordability Strategy and was later updated to reflect Vision Zero and Complete Streets standards.

Other projects to keep an eye on

City Hall renovation. Contractor Grunley is in early phases of the City Hall Renovation Project at Market Square, with trees being removed around City Hall. Drivers and pedestrians should follow posted signage and watch for flaggers; the city has set up a live webcam to follow progress.

Old Town North flood mitigation. Construction at Commonwealth Avenue and Reed Avenue has forced the temporary relocation of the Capital Bikeshare station from Commonwealth and Reed to the unit block of West Reed Avenue. The station is expected to remain at the temporary site until mid-2029.

Pothole Palooza. The city's spring patching push, which kicked off March 30, has been working zone by zone through the city, with the program scheduled to wrap on May 8.

Coming around the bend

Several larger projects are still in design or pre-construction:

Braddock Road Corridor Improvements (east end). The Traffic and Parking Board approved the project 6-0 on Feb. 23 — the project covers Braddock Road between Russell Road and West Street, near the Braddock Road Metro. Residents and two churches appealed the decision, and City Council is scheduled to hear the appeal at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, May 16 at the Del Pepper Community Resource Center.
W. Braddock Road and N. Howard Street safety study (west end). A separate, earlier-stage study is moving toward a community open house from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, June 4 at the Minnie Howard Campus, with a brief presentation at 6 p.m. The roughly 1.5-mile corridor — W. Braddock between N. Van Dorn Street and Crest Street, plus N. Howard between Seminary Road and W. Braddock — is the daily walking and biking route between the two Alexandria City High School campuses. Design concepts are expected this spring, a preferred concept by summer; current funding covers only the concept stage, with construction dollars still to be identified.
King Street–Bradlee Safety and Mobility Enhancements. A nearby project moving toward design and construction of multimodal safety and stormwater improvements on King Street between N. Quaker Lane and Menokin Drive.
Duke Street and West Taylor Run Parkway. Ninety-percent design plans were released in February for a $5.7 million Smart Scale–funded overhaul of one of the city's highest-crash intersections, with construction anticipated for 2027–2028.
South Van Dorn Street bridges. The city is weighing three NVTA-funded design concepts for bicycle and pedestrian improvements between Eisenhower Avenue and McConnell Avenue, with detailed design from 2026 to 2028 and construction slated for 2029.

For the city's master pothole and paving page, including how to report problem streets, visit alexandriava.gov/Potholes. For VDOT and GW Parkway impacts, 511virginia.gov has live closure and incident information.

— Have a road project we should be watching? Send tips to ryan@alexandriabrief.com.

The Alexandria Brief

Alexandria, Va., news and information you won't find anywhere else.

Publisher: Ryan Belmore, an Alexandria resident and journalist.

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