Fairfax County officials are expected to break ground Saturday on a new 1,290-space parking garage at the Burke Centre Virginia Railway Express Station — more than tripling the spaces at the station.
The station, at 5671 Roberts Parkway, has 614 surface parking spaces and is routinely filled by early-morning hours on the weekdays, according to officials. Burke is the third-busiest station in VRE’s 18 station network — making up an estimated 11 percent of the rail system’s 15,000 daily ridership, said VRE spokesman Mark Roeber.
The $28.8 million project, expected to be completed by early 2008, will have 1,290 garage spaces, 250 surface spaces, a designated bus loop, a kiss-and-ride drop-off area, bus shelters, elevators and stairways, and a covered walkway to the train platform, officials said.
“Burke commuters are looking forward to the increased parking capacity this garage will offer,” said Fairfax County Supervisor Sharon Bulova. “The community has been involved in the garage design process, and I’m happy that we’re ready to get started on the construction phase.”
An estimated 80 percent of the project is being funded with federal dollars with the remaining coming from state and county coffers, officials said.
Roeber said plans to increase parking at several other stations — including Manassas, Rippon and Broad Run — are being finalized.
New trains being added to the system’s fleet in November, along with another 50 planned for early next year, will more than handle the expected increase in ridership in the next few years, Roeber said. The commuter rail system saw its first dip in ridership in nearly a decade last fiscal year, mainly because of delays caused by track work and heat restriction on tracks
Officials said there will be some disruption due to existing parking spaces during the construction phase. Commuters will be able to park off-site and be shuttled to the station.
