Federal funds will benefit Fairfax County projects
The FY 2026 appropriations bills approved by Congress include more than $13.4 million for projects in Northern Virginia, Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-11th District) announced.
“From safer streets and stronger public safety infrastructure to clean drinking water, workforce development, and environmental resilience, these investments reflect what Northern Virginia needs to stay safe, competitive, and forward-looking,” he said.
Walkinshaw had proposed many of these projects when he served on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and chaired the board’s Legislative Committee. He was elected to Congress in September to complete the term of the late Rep. Gerry Connolly.
The following projects will receive federal funding:
- $3.1 million for transportation and pedestrian safety improvements in the central Springfield commercial area.
- $500,000 for pipeline infrastructure modernization at the Annandale campus of Northern Virginia Community College. Aging underground utilities will be replaced to prevent outages.
- $750,000 for tree planting and heat island reduction in Fairfax County. The county will retrofit areas within VDOT rights-of-way for street tree planting to expand the urban tree canopy.
- $1 million for Fairfax County’s public safety communications critical infrastructure project. These funds will support an alternate Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP/9-1-1 Center) with the goal of maintaining near-zero downtime for emergency communications during outages and emergencies.
- $1 million to upgrade the Fairfax County Police Department’s Real Time Crime Center with enhanced tools to respond to emerging threats, improve real-time information sharing, and strengthen regional situational awareness.
- $850,000 to install emergency vehicle preemption equipment at key traffic signals along primary routes. This will improve response times for first responders and reduce crashes involving emergency vehicles.
- $1 million to upgrade the City of Fairfax Police Station.
- $741,000 for George Mason University’s Evidence-Based Policing Initiative, which is aimed at preventing crime, building community trust, and improving organizational effectiveness.
- $175,000 for the Fairfax County Advanced Disaster Management Training Project, which uses virtual reality to train emergency responders.
- $150,000 for the DNA Forensic Project, which will help the FCPD solve violent crimes and cold cases.
- $2 million for the Town of Vienna for improvements along the W&OD trail, including a welcome center.
- $1 million to establish the Metropolitan Washington Region’s PFAS Drinking Water Research Center. This project will help keep “forever chemicals” out of the water supply.
- $1 million to support George Mason University’s Internet Namespace Security Observatory, a research center focused on domain name system security and resiliency.