Federal, state and local dignitaries broke ground at the Albert G. Horton Jr. Memorial Veterans Cemetery Wednesday afternoon after receiving $10.2 million in funds for an expansion project from the Veterans Cemetery Grant Program.

This is the third expansion since the cemetery opened in 2004, and the grant was the largest awarded in the country.

Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs Ronald Walters presented the funds to those representing the cemetery.

“I am honored to be here to present $10.2 million for the expansion project. It’s one of the many grants since 2004, and it is the largest ever for a state cemetery,” Walters said.

The Suffolk cemetery is one of three Virginia state veterans’ cemeteries, and it is the largest. On average, the cemetery has roughly 1,200 burials a year, and that number continues to grow, according to Cemeteries Director Dan Kemano.

The new funds will allow the cemetery to add thousands of double-depth crypts on the front half of the cemetery, but the funds will also allow the cemetery to expand its administrative offices, add a fence on Milners Road and rebuild the main entrance.

The other additions will help improve the experience of families coming to make burial plans, and the fence will be a safety measure for visitors as well.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a U.S. Army veteran, reminded spectators how important Virginia’s veterans are and how important facilities like Albert G. Horton Jr. Memorial Veterans Cemetery are.

“This federal grant is a great step in the right direction, and we want to make sure that every veteran is within 75 miles of a cemetery,” Northam said.

The Suffolk facility is especially important to the Hampton Roads area, because it offers a final resting place for the region’s large population of veterans.

“We have the largest number of women veterans and close to the most veterans in Hampton Roads,” Northam said. “It’s very important to have this here, because of so many veterans in Virginia.”

Kemano believes the cemetery will require another expansion within the next five years and that the cemetery can continue to take in new veterans for more than 60 years.