New hub to bring ‘transportation entities in Hampton Roads into one location’
A new transportation center in Newport News is almost complete and is expected to open in May or June of this year.
The center, on Bland Boulevard between Warwick Boulevard and Interstate 64, will be a hub for rail, buses, taxis and airport shuttles. It’s located about a mile from the Newport News/Williamsburg Airport and replaces the undersized Amtrak station located 9 miles to the south on Warwick Boulevard.
“It’s pulling all of the various transportation entities in Hampton Roads into one location and making Hampton Roads accessible to the rest of Virginia and beyond,” said senior architect Kelly Olt of WSP USA, which was involved in the project’s design. “It’s inviting people to come to this area.”
Newport News spokesperson Kim Bracy said the bulk of the $53 million project is covered by numerous federal and state grants, with the city contributing $1.48 million. Of this, she said $1.3 million of it was left over from savings of city money on the Atkinson Boulevard project.
Last week, architects, students from Hampton University, and officials affiliated with architectural organization AIA Hampton Roads were given a tour of the new facility. Olt, who led the tour, said the building still needs a certificate of occupancy, but the bulk of the work is complete. Mike Cahoon, a project manager with M.B. Kahn Construction, Co., Inc — contractors for the building portion of the project — said most of the construction wrapped up in December, but there is still some final testing being done on electronics.
Olt said the new location serves as a great “hub” for Newport News, being in close proximity to the airport, I-64 and Fort Eustis.
“It’s a cool location to get people to into the area and where they go from there,” she said.
The center is 10,050 square feet — with an 8,066 square foot station and a 1,984 square foot canopy designed to protect visitors from the elements.
The increase in space at the new station should benefit the surge in ridership Amtrak has recently experienced. The Virginia Passenger Rail Authority reported more than 1.32 million passengers traveled on its state-supported Amtrak Virginia service during 2023 — the highest ridership recorded since state supported service began in 2009. The authority reported that all four Amtrak Virginia corridors saw increases year-over-year. Route 47 in Newport News had a ridership of 363,835 — an increase of 36.8% over 2022.
Additional Amtrak expansion in the region could be in the works. The federal government plans to spend $500,000 to study construction of an east-to-west train line that would connect Hampton Roads with the western part of the state.
Jimmy Holland Jr — assistant vice president and civil engineer with WSP USA — said the project was done in three phases. Phase one involved grading and removal of unsuitable materials from the site, phase two included the installation of trackwork, and phase three included construction of the station building and parking lot.
The transportation center was initially slated to open in 2022 but has faced numerous delays. One involved the construction and relocation of 18- and 24-inch water lines and sewer lines at the CSX railway crossing of Lucas Creek. In addition, surcharging — the process of compressing soil to make it strong enough to support the weight of a project — took much longer than expected, and there were challenges in finding an available flagger to ensure the safe passage of trains.
Then, in March of last year, Newport News Acting Director of Engineering Craig M. Galant revealed that the project was experiencing even further delays due to supply chain issues.
But Bracy said the center is now slated for a May or June opening.
The building contains a lot of natural light and blue color — the color of Amtrak. Olt said the facility contains taxi lanes, a bus route where passengers can catch the Hampton Roads Transit bus system, and CSX rail lines to bring passenger trains to the area.
Yorktown-based architect Bonnie Baffer, one of the attendees of last week’s tour, described the new station as a major improvement from the much smaller current one. She described the station as looking “modern and fabulous” and that she hopes it will “stay that way” over time.
Olt said the center brings all different forms of transportation together and cohesively. She said that’s currently not something residents have unless they live in the inner city. She also said it will be a considerable upgrade from the current Amtrak station, being “bigger and more accessible” and having much more parking and seating available.
Josh Janney, joshua.janney@virginiamedia.com
