After years of waiting (and months after work actually began), Virginia, Alexandria, and Metro officials are holding a ceremonial groundbreaking Thursday afternoon for the new Potomac Yard Metro Station.

The station behind the current strip mall has been long planned to improve access and drive development in the area.

With the announcement last year of Amazon-related plans for a Virginia Tech campus near the station, additional pieces of those development plans came together.

The station is projected to open in spring 2022. The city and Metro are still working on design plans for one of the entrances that was cut to shave costs.

The station is on the Blue and Yellow lines between the Braddock Road and Reagan National Airport stations.

The groundbreaking was scheduled after final environmental approvals and permits were approved earlier this fall that officially allow construction to continue into the next phases.