A Fairfax County supervisor is weighing a measure to push Virginia officials to put the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project out to bid.
Lee District Supervisor Dana Kauffman has recently worked to draft a motion that sources say could go as far as withholding Fairfax County’s portion of funds in an effort to pressure the commonwealth to seek competing proposals.
State and Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority officials are now in negotiations with Dulles Transit Partners, a duo of private firms, to design and build the first phase of the rail extension to Wiehle Avenue.
Kauffman’s chief of staff, Jeff McKay, confirmed on Thursday that the supervisor is planning to address competitive bidding for the rail extension, but said it’s too early to discuss the specifics of the measure because its language has not been finalized.
Neither McKay nor Kauffman could be reached Tuesday, however, and in what form the motion could appear on the board’s agenda — if it appears at all — was unclear.
“We’re working on something that tries to address the funding of this in a fair way,” McKay said last week.
The county is responsible for a quarter of the rail line’s price, which is estimated at more than $4 billion.
Dulles Transit Partners would be selected through a public-private partnership instead of a traditional bid process, which critics have blasted as a “no-bid” or “sole-source” contract. Virginia officials, however, argue the process was still competitive.
Kauffman and the rest of the board have been highly critical of the state’s handling of the rail extension, which they had endorsed in 2002.
Fairfax County Board Chairman Gerald Connolly said he’s heard “there may be an attempt” to withhold local funding unless the rail extension is subjected to competitive bidding.
“I’d have to see the language, but in general I’m comfortable with the concept,” Connolly said last week. “We have to have rail in the Dulles corridor, and I don’t want us doing anything, albeit with the best of intentions, that is going to derail the project. So we have to be careful about the wording.”
