The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, trying to ease outraged Fairfax and Loudoun county officials, has offered to pay more money toward an underground Metro station at Washington Dulles International Airport. The proposed deal is the first offered to resolve the disputed placement of the station. In April, the authority voted to build an underground station at a cost $330 million more than an aboveground option. Loudoun and Fairfax officials, whose taxpayers are on the hook for funding the project, reacted immediately and angrily.
Those same officials are now balking at the authority’s recent offer, saying the promise of extra cash is not enough to ensure future Dulles Toll Road rates are kept in check. Under the agreed-to funding formula, financing the second phase of Dulles Rail construction will be split between the authority at 4 percent, Fairfax at 16 percent, Loudoun at 5 percent, and toll revenue at 75 percent.
“They came to us and said they’re willing to pay for a portion of the undergrounding to help take it off the backs of Loudoun and Fairfax,” said Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Chairman Scott York. “We’ve taken the position of trying to figure out how to take it off the backs of people using the toll road, which they haven’t done.”
York questioned the authority’s ability to pay for expected increases in the overall cost of the rail project. In April, he wrote to authority Chairman Charles Snelling requesting a meeting of the Dulles Corridor Advisory Committee — composed of Fairfax, Loudoun, the state and the authority — so Snelling could explain the project’s finances.
That meeting has not been scheduled, to the frustration of York and Fairfax County Chairwoman Sharon Bulova.
“The bottom line is that there has been back and forth. They’ve made suggestions to Fairfax, they’ve made suggestions to Loudoun, I believe they’ve been trying to talk with the commonwealth and [Transportation Secretary Sean Connaughton], but so far we’ve not all talked together,” Bulova said. “That’s a source of frustration.
A spokeswoman for Snelling said he’s aware of the request and will eventually schedule a meeting.
