It's been exactly 2 years since Amazon announced HQ2 would be built in Arlington
ARLINGTON, Va. (ABC7) — It was November 13, 2018 when Amazon announced its second headquarters would be built in Arlington. Two years later, construction on the massive HQ2 site is now underway on South Eads Street in Pentagon City. That's where Amazon is building two 22-story office towers, with plans to hire 25,000 HQ2 employees over the next decade.
The project started with the demolition of several 1950s-era warehouses that once stood on the HQ2 site located near the intersection of South Eads Street and 15th Street South.
Right now, Amazon's contractor says mass excavation is about 97 percent complete. That means they've removed enough soil to fill nearly 44,000 dump trucks. Concrete pouring is also underway, and because of that neighbors will notice an increase in truck traffic around the job site over the next two weeks.
Four of five tower cranes have been erected at the HQ2 site over the last few weeks, with the fifth tower crane scheduled to be installed in December.
ABC7 has already reported on the growing pains of all that construction activity. This spring, neighbors were frustrated by noisy pile driving that took place as thousands of people living nearby were stuck working from home due to COVID-19.
RELATED: Amazon's contractor completes noisy pile driving at the HQ2 site in Arlington
Just this week, Amazon's contractor apologized for "a beeping noise" coming from the construction site late Wednesday night into Thursday morning.
"We were alerted to a beeping noise coming from the Metropolitan Park job site. After an initial investigation, we discovered that a sky horn on the hook of one of our tower cranes was malfunctioning. The horn is a safety feature on the crane and is used to notify our workers on-site when heavy loads are picked overhead. Rainwater had seeped inside the device causing it to sound unintentionally throughout the night. We sincerely apologize for the disturbance this may have caused. We do not anticipate this occurring again," Clark Construction wrote in an email to Pentagon City neighbors.
In early October, Clark Construction held its first 'Construction Conversation' with the Arlington community, to provide an update on construction activity at the HQ2 site.
RELATED: Amazon HQ2 update: contractor talks construction concerns & progress in Pentagon City
The 2.1-million sq. ft. HQ2 project, also known as Metropolitan Park, will also include ground-floor retail and more than two acres of public open space. Amazon has said construction is on schedule and the 22-story HQ2 towers are expected to be finished in 2023.
In exchange for exceptions to zoning rules regarding building height, density, and parking ratios at the HQ2 site on South Eads Street, Amazon negotiated a community benefits package with Arlington County staff before construction began.
RELATED: Arlington County approves Amazon's proposal for HQ2 towers
Those community benefits were part of the HQ2 development proposal approved by county leaders in December of 2019, and include the following:
- Over two acres of public open space
- A $20 million affordable housing contribution
- Two new public streets
- Sidewalk and streetscape improvements
- Protected bike lanes on South Eads Street and 15th Street South
- Floating bus islands with shelters
- Street-level retail space
- A shared underground parking garage
- $225,000 for public art
