Today the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) notified the National Park Service that it is terminating consultation on the development of a Section 106 agreement for the Triumphal Arch Project in Washington, DC, and Virginia. Pursuant to its responsibilities under the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), the ACHP will prepare formal comments on the project and submit them to the Secretary of the Interior. Once the Secretary of the Interior considers and responds to the ACHP’s comments, the Section 106 review for this undertaking will be concluded.

Read the letter from the ACHP to the National Park Service on the Section 106 consultation termination.

In accordance with the Section 106 implementing regulations, the ACHP is requesting that consulting parties and the public provide their views on the undertaking and its effects on historic properties. Comments are requested by 11:59 p.m. ET on Tuesday, September 29, 2026. Please submit comments to Jaime Loichinger, Director of the Office of Federal Agency Programs, at jloichinger@achp.gov. All comments will be part of the public record and reviewed by the ACHP prior to the finalization and transmittal of its formal comments to the Secretary of the Interior.

The proposed undertaking consists of the construction of a new Triumphal Arch within Memorial Circle, together with associated plaza and landscape improvements, utility and stormwater infrastructure, traffic and pedestrian circulation modifications, security features, lighting, and temporary staging and laydown areas required for construction. The site is located within a ceremonial, commemorative, and transportation setting associated with Arlington Memorial Bridge, the Memorial Avenue Corridor, Lady Bird Johnson (LBJ) Park, Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington House, and the broader monumental core of Washington, DC.

The proposed Triumphal Arch would be a reinforced concrete structure clad in granite and ornamented with statuary and sculptural elements. The principal architectural mass would rise approximately 166 feet above finish grade, with surmounting statuary extending the total height to approximately 250 feet. The undertaking would include site development within and immediately around Memorial Circle, including a paved plaza, security barriers and bollards, exterior and interior lighting, surveillance and access-control systems, security screening facilities, utility extensions, stormwater management features, and both temporary and permanent changes to traffic and pedestrian circulation.

In its Assessment of Effects, the NPS identified 42 historic properties within the Area of Potential Effect, including 6 National Historic Landmarks (NHLs), 8 historic districts, 8 cultural landscapes, and 20 individual or other historic properties. NPS determined that the undertaking would have an adverse effect on these properties due to several factors, including the introduction of a prominent new vertical element into nationally significant historic and commemorative landscapes; alteration of character-defining views, vistas, axial relationships, and reciprocal sightlines; and changes to setting, feeling, association, spatial organization, and design continuity of the identified historic properties.

While the NPS proposed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) to resolve the undertaking’s adverse effects, consulting parties raised concerns with the purpose and need of the Triumphal Arch, the adequacy of the identification efforts, the assessment of effects to historic properties, and the sufficiency of the proposed mitigation, and whether NPS met the requirements of Section 110(f) of the NHPA to undertake such planning and actions as may be necessary to minimize harm to any National Historic Landmark that may be directly and adversely affected by an undertaking. In recognition of the public’s significant concerns regarding the adverse effects the undertaking would pose to historic properties, the ACHP stated it was terminating consultation, and indicated its intent to provide its advisory comments by October 7, 2026.

In accordance with 36 CFR § 800.7(c), the ACHP will develop its final advisory comments on this undertaking to the head of the agency. Updates will be provided on this news story.