First, a preface. I’ve lived in Northern Virginia for more than fifteen years now, and the idea of expanding Metrorail across northern Fairfax County and out to Dulles Airport has been around pretty much as long as I’ve lived here. Proposals have been made, and proposals have been shot down.
That, in part, is why I haven’t taken the latest developments about extending Metrorail to Dulles all that seriously. The latest proposal is hung up on the question of whether the Metro line that would run from the West Falls Church Staion through Tyson’s Corner should be above-ground or below-ground. Obviously, a below ground project through a highly developed area like Tysons would be expensive, which is why Virginia is leaning toward the cheaper alternative of above-ground rail.
At this point, though, it’s beginning to appear that the idea of Metro to Dulles will die on the vine
Virginia transportation officials are threatening to end talks with a private contractor seeking to build a Metro extension to Dulles International Airport if a deal is not struck by April 5, jeopardizing the future of the $4 billion project.
The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which is overseeing construction, said in a letter to the contractor that the cost estimates are too high. If the price is not slashed by the April 5 deadline, the letter raises the possibility that the Metro extension — the region’s largest planned rail project — could die.
“The authority considers time to be of the essence in completing the negotiations,” Frank D. Holly Jr., the authority’s vice president for engineering, wrote in the March 9 letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post. “After that date, the authority team will be making our final recommendation . . . regarding the continuation of this process.”
Quite honestly, my prediction is that this latest effort will fail just like all the others have.
March 16th, 2007 at 9:10 am
It’s certainly hard to believe that ALL of the metro extension segments and collateral transportation improvements will die during this very critical election year; I’d count on a wave of public, private and political pressure to VDOT’s threat from actually manifesting itself.