Thursday, March 19, 2009

Arlington County officials are continuing their push to build a Columbia Pike streetcar line between Pentagon City and the Skyline area of Fairfax County. Backers hope the five-mile line will aid commuters, prompt redevelopment and seed a much larger Northern Virginia streetcar network.

At a meeting Saturday, the County Board voted to spend $3 million on environmental studies and designs for the project. Officials will look toward the federal government to help fund the effort, said board member Chris Zimmerman. The project is estimated to cost $160 million, $138 million for the Arlington portion and about $22 million for Fairfax, officials said.

"It looked like it was going to be a lot more state funds before," Zimmerman said. But now, in the early days of the Obama administration, "the federal environment is looking far more favorable," he said.

-- MICHAEL LARIS