An $8.8B effort to overhaul Union Station has received a crucial stamp of approval.

A plan to revamp the transit hub in the nation’s capital has been in the works for more than a decade. But this week’s approval, after years of studies of a slate of proposals, provides a clear path ahead to redevelop the 53-acre station

The Federal Railroad Administration signed the Final Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision documents Tuesday. The milestone allows the project sponsor, Union Station Redevelopment Corp., to proceed to securing funding and designing the project.

The project looks to completely revamp how the station functions — from delivering a new rail terminal with 19 tracks to creating four new concourses with new retail, reducing the number of garage parking spaces by 77%, creating a 39-slip bus facility and creating a pedestrian throughway under the H Street Bridge. The project would preserve the station’s historic main hall.

The report estimates the project will take 13 years and be completed in phases, with different tracks taken out of circulation at different times. The projected completion date is 2040, which would mean that work would need to start by 2027. Funding is not yet secured.

The redevelopment plan would allow a 3.7M SF mixed-use air rights project from Akridge next to the station to proceed. The D.C.-based developer’s plan for Burnham Place across 15 acres has been in the works for nearly two decades. The plan calls for residential, hotel, office and retail development, according to the FRA’s report.

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