1. Woodrow Wilson Bridge
Work began in the spring to replace the 40-year-old Wilson Bridge, which wasn’t designed to handle the 190,000 vehicles that cross it daily. The new bridge, scheduled for completion by 2007, is expected to cost at least $2.4 billion.

The complete project covers seven and a half miles and includes interchanges and connections. Virginia’s share for bridge construction and interchanges off Interstate 95/495 in Alexandria is expected to be $927 million. Maryland will pay $1.2 billion for bridge and interchanges. The federal government will pay $1.5 billion for the bridge. Construction, mainly for interchanges and other nearby roads, could continue to 2011.

2. Capital One
The consumer credit card giant is developing three campuses in the Richmond area and a new global headquarters on 30 acres at Tysons Corner in Fairfax County. The largest corporate expansion in Virginia history is expected to mean the hiring of 8,200 new employees through 2004.

The West Creek Campus, in Goochland County will consolidate space from 19 leased buildings into 1.5 million square feet in eight buildings with a potential capacity of 2.2 million square feet. The corporate headquarters will move from Falls Church to a 14-story building at the intersection of I-495 and Route 123. The headquarters will support 1,700 employees, but plans allow for 4,000 additional workers and three other buildings.

3. Dominion Semiconductor
Work began early this year installing tools and hiring 600 operators to build advanced flash memory in an expansion of a Manassas facility built in 1995. Work is expected to be done by the second quarter of 2002. Dominion, a joint venture of Toshiba Corporation and SanDisk Corporation, will manufacture memory cards used in products including digital cameras, digital music players and future lines of cell phones. The facility is expected to support sales of more than $1 billion by 2002.

4. Virginia Route 58 Bypass
The current phase of the ongoing upgrade to Route 58, started in 1989, extends a four-lane highway 5.1 miles around Clarksville. The stretch expected to be completed in 2003 includes 13 bridges, including a 4,800-foot-long bridge over the John H. Kerr Reservoir. The Route 58 project will provide bypasses around many small towns along the entire 500-mile highway.

5. Springfield Interchange
One of the largest highway construction projects in the country will rebuild one of the nation’s most congested interchanges, building miles of roads, overpasses and bridges at the intersection of I-95, I-395 and I-495. More than 50 bridges will be constructed and I-95 will be widened to 24 lanes between the Capital Beltway and Franconia Road during the eight-year project expected to be completed in 2007. The main contractor could receive a $10 million bonus for completing phases two and three ahead of schedule.

6. Richmond International Airport
More than $117 million in improvements to roadways, taxiways, rental car facilities, terminals, storm water management, a de-icing system, parking and other areas continues. The work is part of a 10-year, $327 million expansion program by the Capital Region Airport Commission.

7. Virginia Route 895/Pocahontas Parkway
Route 895, designated the Pocahontas Parkway in January 1999, is the first construction project implemented under Virginia’s Public-Private Transportation Act of 1995. The commonwealth is contributing only $27 million with the rest of the $327 million in funding coming from bond issues to be repaid through a $1.50 toll.

The 8.8-mile connector will be a four-lane road linking Chippenham Parkway at I-95 in Chesterfield County with I-295 south of the Richmond International Airport in Henrico County. The project includes the third largest cast-in-place concrete bridge in North America and soars 150 feet over the James River and 100 feet over I-95.

8. Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum-Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center
The Udvar-Hazy Center south of the main terminal at Washington-Dulles International Airport near the intersection of state Routes 28 and 50 will provide exhibit hangers, classrooms, an observation tower from which visitors can watch airport traffic, a theater, classrooms, archives and a restaurant. Ground was broken last October, and construction is expected to be completed in December 2003 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers’ first powered flight. More than 200 aircraft and 135 space craft, including the Space Shuttle Enterprise, the Enola Gay and an SR-71 "Blackbird" reconnaissance aircraft will be on display.

9. Town Center of Virginia Beach
The Virginia Beach Town Center will cover 14 city blocks and provide 1.8 million square feet of retail, office and hotel space when fully built by 2006. The first phase, started in June 2000 and scheduled for completion in August 2002, includes a 14-story, 252,000-square-foot office building on top of a 1,300-car, nine-story parking garage. The garage/building will be surrounded by 125,000 square feet of retail and office space. On the other side of the garage will be a 19-story hotel, most likely a Hilton. Phase two is expected to begin in the spring 2002.

10. Oyster Point Town Center of Newport News
Oyster Point Town Center will offer about 1 million square feet of retail, office and residential space on a five-acre site modeled after Reston Town Center in Northern Virginia.

The first phase includes about 190,000 square feet of office space, 30,000 square feet of retail, 300 apartments and a 1,100-space parking garage. Plans call for a privately owned 80,000-square-foot building the city will lease. Future phases may also include a hotel, additional apartments, condominiums and a hotel convention center.

11. Virginia Route 288
The western loop around Richmond will extend Route 288 by 17.5 miles from the Powhite Parkway in Chesterfield County to I-64 in Goochland County. This Public-Private Partnership Transportation Act project between VDOT and APAC-Virginia Inc. of Danville, CH2MHILL of Herndon and Koch Performance Roads of Wichita, Kan. is expected to finish seven months ahead of schedule, shaving $47 million from initial projections.

12. Madison Heights Bypass
Existing Route 29 will become Route 20 Business when the bypass from Route 460 to Route 29 at Sweet Briar is completed in 2004-2005. The bypass is expected to provide traffic relief within Lynchburg.

13. USA Today and Gannett Headquarters
The nation’s largest newspaper publisher and its flagship USA Today are due to move to their gleaming new home adjacent to the Dulles Toll Road after construction delays prevented a summer move from Arlington. Gannett’s 1,800 workers filling the 800,000 square feet of space will enjoy playing fields and trails on the 25-acre tract.

14. I-81 widening
It could take 20 years and $2 billion to widen the entire 325-mile section of I-81 in Virginia. The Commonwealth Transportation Board has authorized design and construction of some sections near Christiansburg and the Virginia-Tennessee border.

15. Washington-Dulles International Airport
The airport’s first parking garages will provide 8,500 daily parking spaces in two phases to be completed next spring and fall. They will supplement the existing 20,000 spaces, most of which are economy parking spots. Separately, the airport is continuing an $88 million upgrade of baggage processing, baggage claim and ticket counters in the original terminal. Planning has also begun on a $3.4 billion renovation and expansion to be completed by 2006.

16. Port Warwick
This mixed-use urban village will be a pedestrian-oriented community on 150 acres in the center of Newport News when fully built out in five to 10 years. Construction on buildings around the town square could begin this fall. Plans call for an eventual light-rail station and a minor league baseball stadium.

17. Sentara Hampton General Hospital replacement
The Sentara Health Campus on the Virginia Peninsula will replace the aging Sentara Hampton General Hospital located about 5 miles away. The new facility on 45 acres will offer 368,000 square feet and have 194 beds compared to the current 369. There’s expansion room planned for two five-story patient towers.

18. Westminster-Canterbury
A 14-story high-rise expansion for the retirement home in Virginia Beach will offer Chesapeake Bay views along with a pool, chapel, arts and crafts, offices and 12 floors of residential apartments. A similar project is underway at the company’s Lynchburg location.

19. The Chesapeake/Virginia Baptist Homes
The Chesapeake retirement community, located in Newport News, is being enlarged to five times its size with 29 cottages, 112 independent-living apartments, 60 assisted-living spaces, 52 nursing home beds and 15 residences for residents with Alzheimer’s and dementia.

Another $27 million phase with additional independent living apartments and cottages is proposed.