THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

Arlington County infrastructure development project adds burial space at cemetery

 

April 22, 2010 - Work continues in Arlington National Cemetery’s sections 12 and 33 on
Arlington County’s Potomac Interceptor Sanitary Sewer Improvements project.

 

 

 

 

Jan. 8, 2010

ARLINGTON, Va. – Approximately 10,000 additional grave sites will be developed at Arlington National Cemetery in the sections along Eisenhower Drive as a result of an Arlington County infrastructure development project.

The installation of a new sewer system as part of the county’s Potomac Interceptor Sanitary Sewer Improvements Project, and the relocation of the federally-owned 16-inch water main and other utilities within the cemetery will allow for the development of approximately eight to ten acres of cemetery land currently obstructed by the utility lines.

“The development of usable burial space in the sections along Eisenhower Drive will be a great benefit to the cemetery,” said Kent Carson, Arlington National Cemetery’s facility manager.

Construction work is scheduled to take place on cemetery grounds over the course of the next 18 months. The southern end of Eisenhower Drive, near the cemetery’s boundary with Columbia Pike, has been temporarily re-routed following the beginning of construction work by Total Engineering, Inc., a company contracted by Arlington County, in late 2009. The road will be repaired and repaved as the construction shifts north along Eisenhower Drive.

Between 27 and 30 funerals take place at Arlington National Cemetery each weekday; however, it is anticipated that these much-needed infrastructure projects will cause minimal disruption to the cemetery’s daily operations as construction work will be performed primarily in the evening hours after the cemetery is closed to the public and on acceptable weekends and holidays.

If the current burial rate is sustained, estimates indicate the cemetery’s space availability will extend to 2060 with this and other development projects underway. Currently, more than 330,000 people are buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

The Potomac Interceptor Sanitary Sewer Improvements Project aims at safeguarding the Potomac River against wastewater discharges from designated watersheds not already connected to adequate sewage disposal facilities. It is a complex regional project requiring extensive coordination between a number of parties to include Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington County, the Virginia Department of Transportation, Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority and the National Park Service. The project is part of the 1992 Arlington County Sanitary Sewer Master Plan.

For updates on the Potomac Interceptor project at Arlington National Cemetery, please visit www.arlingtoncemetery.org. For more information on the Potomac Interceptor in Arlington County, please visit www.arlingtonva.us.

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