Very little about the effort to build an aquatics center at Long Bridge Park has ever been easy 鈥� and that includes the project鈥檚 long-awaited groundbreaking.
Mother Nature had one last obstacle in store for county leaders as they gathered to finally turn some dirt at Long Bridge, delivering a formidable deluge that thoroughly soaked the construction site ahead of Tuesday鈥檚 ceremonial start to construction.
Yet even as the rain turned the ground to mush and tested the limits of attendees鈥� umbrellas, Arlington officials pressed on with a celebration of a project that鈥檚 been decades in the making.
鈥淭his project has endured worse than a little rain,鈥� joked County Board Chair Katie Cristol.
Voters approved funding for the project in a 2012 bond referendum, but major cost overruns to delay the facility鈥檚 construction two years later, and it quickly became a hot-button issue in that year鈥檚 local elections.
After a lengthy process of scaling back the project鈥檚 scope, and reducing its cost, the Board on its construction last fall 鈥� but even still, some in the community it pushed back as the county wrestles with a budget dilemma.
Those are all big reasons why Jay Fisette, who served on the Board for 20 years, compared the project to a church in Barcelona, Spain that鈥檚 been under construction since 1882. Toby Smith, a local activist who helped lead the Long Bridge Park planning process, added that he 鈥渃an measure the project鈥檚 length by the height of my kids.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 fair to say I did have doubts over the years, even as the community was largely still behind it,鈥� Fisette told ARLnow. 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 clear every moment that it was going to happen鈥� but groundbreaking helps it become eminently real.鈥�
Fisette remembers some delays prompted when planners working to design the park, which opened across from the Pentagon in 2011, decided to shift where the aquatics center would be located within Long Bridge. He also puts some of the blame for the project鈥檚 long timeline on himself, recalling his insistence that the facility meet the new energy efficiency standards he fought to impose for county buildings.
鈥淚t was never expected to happen quickly,鈥� Fisette said. 鈥淕ood things sometimes take a long time.鈥�
Still, Cristol lamented that it was 鈥渂ittersweet鈥� that the county would break ground on the project without Carrie Johnson around to see it. As one of the county鈥檚 longest tenured planning commissioners, Johnson played a key role in shepherding the entire Long Bridge Park project through the process, but this May.
鈥淵ears down the road, we鈥檒l all be thanking Carrie Johnson for this,鈥� Smith said.
But for all the project鈥檚 long history, Cristol points out that many of Arlington鈥檚 new arrivals are only now learning about aquatics center. She feels Long Bridge is as much about the county鈥檚 future as its past, and she hopes the upcoming construction work 鈥渨ill give people a chance to learn about what will be coming here.鈥�
Work is set to wrap up in 2021, with a 50-meter pool, diving towers, a family pool and a series of additional park improvements on tap for the area by the time it鈥檚 completed.
So even if the project required some long nights, a few headaches and one last morning in the rain, Fisette feels it was all worth the effort.
鈥淭his area used to be an invisible place,鈥� Fisette said. 鈥淚t was a wasteland, where you鈥檇 only come if your car got towed. This is going to transform it into a vibrant community amenity.鈥�
