State and airports authority officials have reached an agreement with two contractors to construct the first leg of the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project, a project now expected to cost as much as $2.7 billion.
Project officials on Friday announced the end of negotiations with Bechtel Infrastructure and Washington Group International, who together make up Dulles Transit Partners, to design and build the rail extension’s initial phase from west Falls Church to Wiehle Avenue, near Reston.
After months of wrangling over cost with the Commonwealth and Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, the contractors agreed to a $1.6 billion dollar price. The agreement puts the total cost of the first phase from $2.4 to $2.7 billion, according to project spokeswoman Marcia McAllister.
That price range, even at its low end, is substantially higher than earlier estimates. Last summer, a study by the American Society of Civil Engineers found the project would cost about $2.25 billion with an aerial rail through Tysons Corner, and $2.5 billion with a tunnel under Tysons.
The most recent proposal, which includes the above-ground option, could easily outstrip the price of the Tysons tunnel and run up against the same federal cost-effectiveness standards that led the governor to abandon the underground route last year.
In a news release Friday morning, the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation nevertheless said it expects the price to remain within the Federal Transit Administration’s constraints and keep the project eligible for $900 million in federal funds. The rest of the project is paid for with toll-road and tax-district revenue.
The FTA is now expected to run the proposal through a series of checks to ensure the number of riders it will serve balances with its costs to taxpayers. If the agency signs off on the project and agrees to fund it, officials expect to begin construction in spring of 2008.
The entire 23-mile project, expected to cost more than $4 billion, will run past Dulles Airport into Loudoun County.
Read other stories by William Flook
