Arlington County Board members on July 16 are expected to approve a contract revision that will allow for installation of eight transit stations along Columbia Pike, rather than the four originally envisioned when the contract was first consummated.
The proposal calls for upping the contract total from $1.65 million to $2.72 million to accommodate the doubling of pre-fabricated transit stations to be installed at various spots along the route.
County Board members in 2016 approved a plan for 23 transit stops along the Pike. The design selected was seen as an improvement from the existing bus stops but not quite the lavishly appointed stops envisioned as part of the Columbia Pike streetcar project, an effort that was abandoned in 2014.
(The Washington Post termed those earlier designs “million-dollar bus stops,” and while factually incorrect, the name resonated among critics both of the streetcar proposal and of county-government spending in general.)