If extending Metrorail through Tysons Corner is really such a great deal for county taxpayers, then why so much back-room dealing and rule-bending to get it off (or underneath) the ground? Indeed, the project’s brief history contains a growing pack of red flags that taxpayers need to examine closely:
Red Flag No. 1: It’s not VDOT’s idea
In 1999, the Virginia Department of Transportation’s professional Initial Review Committee voted 6-to-1 for bus rapid transit in the Dulles corridor. But the Fairfax Board of Supervisors picked heavy rail as the “locally preferred option” instead — which pleased developers who see more profit in the much higher densities that come with a Metro line.
Red Flag No. 2: Conflict of interest
Board Chairman Gerry Connolly voted to move one of the proposed Tysons Corner stations — even though the new location was right in front of land owned by his employer and his vote was a clear conflict of interest. Is it a coincidence that SAIC also owns land right across from the proposed station in Reston?
Red Flag No. 3: Bechtel gets no-bid contract
You think Boston’s Big Dig was a fiasco? Guess who got a no-bid contract for the Dulles Metro? Bechtel, the prime contractor on the Big Dig, which cost far more and took vastly longer to complete than originally promised. And now the Big Dig is falling apart, with one person (so far) killed by falling concrete.
Red Flag No. 4: Taxpayers liable for cost overruns
Wealthy landowners who will rake in hundreds of millions from higher densities have a cap on their contributions to a special tax district; taxpayers do not. County residents are liable for all cost overruns and, considering Bechtel’s track record in Boston, that could be a lot. The Big Dig, originally estimated at $2.6 billion, eventually cost $14.6 billion — the constantly leaking tunnel finally collapsed on July 10, killing a mother of three. A Massachusetts’ inspector general warned 10 years ago that the state’s “near total reliance” on Bechtel created “significant and unnecessary financial risk,” but nobody listened.
Red Flag No. 5: Exemption from federal cost/benefit standards
Virginia’s congressional delegation gained a legislative exemption of Dulles Rail from current federal cost/benefit requirements. Congressmen Frank Wolf, R-10th, and Tom Davis, R-11th, recently warned Gov. Tim Kaine that delays caused by adding a tunnel option at this late date could jeopardize $900 million in federal funding.
Red Flag No. 6: Another conflict of interest
On Monday, state officials said they were weighing a tunnel proposal by a group linked to West Group, which they characterized as a rival proposal. What they didn’t say is that West Group was initially the third member of the Bechtel consortium, but stepped aside due to conflict of interest worries. The politically-wired Tysons landowner, which stands to profit handsomely from Dulles Rail, is again trying to double-dip on the lucrative construction side of the project.
Red Flag No. 7: Costs continue to climb
A panel of experts from the American Society of Civil Engineers found that an underground tunnel was feasible in Tysons, but would cost at least $250 million more than the elevated option — which itself needed congressional intervention to evade strict Federal Transit Administration guidelines.
Red Flag No. 8: New technology, same old players
New large-bore technology by Dragados, a Spanish firm, will supposedly keep tunneling costs down. Didn’t The Washington Group — Bechtel’s partner and the largest engineering firm in the world — know about that technology when recommending an elevated track to save money? Incidentally, Dragados is also allied with Clark Construction — the same company that ran up huge overruns on the Springfield Mixing Bowl.
If Gov. Kaine announces a Dulles Rail tunnel, he better explain exactly how he intends to keep Virginia’s Big Dig from becoming another underground fiasco.
