With Key Approval, What’s Next For The Georgetown Gondola?

• January 28, 2016

by UrbanTurf Staff

UrbanTurf’s streetcar-inspired rendering of the gondola, by Capital Pixel

On Thursday night, the Arlington County Board unanimously approved $35,000 in funding for the long-planned feasibility study of an aerial gondola that would connect Rosslyn and Georgetown. The funding approval was the final piece that needed to be put in place in order for the study to move forward.

“This was pretty much the last step that we have been waiting for – for all the funding partners to commit to the feasibility study,” Georgetown BID CEO Joe Sternlieb told UrbanTurf. “The RFP will be released to the consulting community in February and we will be on track to complete the study in calendar 2016.”

The gondola project is easily the boldest of the plans outlined in the Georgetown 2028 project, a set of 75 action items Georgetown would like to see implemented over the next 14 years, most of which relate to transportation improvements.

The gondola study will analyze everything from ridership demand to operation and installation costs to engineering and technical issues, and is expected to take about seven months to complete. As for the timeline of the construction and operation of an aerial gondola, the study should also provide some answers to that as well.

“In a perfect world where there was 100 percent agreement from all the regulatory agencies, fully committed funding, and no opposition, it would take about four years to permit and build,” Sternlieb wrote to UrbanTurf. “The feasibility study will give us a much better timeline.”

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/with_key_approval_whats_next_for_dcs_favorite_gondola/10815