Comments At Arlington County Board Town Hall, May 4, 2026.
The Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA) has announced funding for 3 trail widening projects in Arlington, including the 4.24 mile Custis Trail, that runs along I-66 from Rosslyn to Westover Park. Arlington County wants $2.4 million for the design phase of this project, which will ultimately cost $29.9 million.
As per Virginia code at § 33.2-2500, NVTA’s mission is to “prepare a regional transportation plan . . . that includes transportation improvements of regional significance and those improvements necessary or incidental thereto.” In addition to projects listed in the regional long-range transportation plan, significant projects include: “Other highway, rail, bus, and technology projects that could make a significant impact on mobility in the region.”
Virginia code at § 33.2-2510.C.1 further requires NVTA to give “priority to selecting projects that are expected to provide the greatest congestion reduction relative to the cost of the project . . .”
Nowhere in Virginia Code are trail widening projects defined as significant. Nowhere has it been demonstrated that the Custis Trail project will provide significant congestion relief along I-66. Thus it appears that Custis Trail widening does not meet the funding requirements of Virginia Code.
There is also the question of cost. Arlington just completed repaving 2.5 miles of the Custis Trail between Rosslyn and Hayes Park at an estimated cost of $3.9 million (Proposed CIP 10 Year Project List FY 2025-FY 2034, p. 2). Since widening the trail would likely require tearing up more than half of what was just repaved, this project is a complete waste of taxpayers’ money and constitutes the definition of “waste” in the well-worn phrase “waste, fraud and abuse.”