The second phase of the Dulles Metro rail project will cost $2.7 billion to $3.2 billion, officials said Tuesday.
The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority released the new estimate after completing preliminary engineering for the project, which will extend Metro’s new Silver Line from Reston into Loudoun County and through Washington Dulles International Airport.
The costs are in line with preliminary estimates agreed to by the authority, state, federal and local leaders when they brokered a deal on the project last summer.
The rail line will cost $2.7 billion if Fairfax and Loudoun counties agree to help pay for five parking garages and a Metro station. It would cost as much as $3.2 billion if the counties don’t pay and instead wrap those costs into the overall price of the project.
Fairfax and Loudoun counties now have 90 days to decide whether to participate in the project, paying their share and receiving their new rail stations.
The new estimates are “not a surprise,” said Fairfax County Chairman Sharon Bulova, D-at large, who wants the county to continue supporting the rail line.
“As far as I can see there are no showstoppers,” she said.
But all eyes are on Loudoun County, where seven freshman supervisors were elected to the all-Republican board, many of them still undecided about whether the rail line is worth the millions of dollars it would cost Loudoun County.
Supervisor Ralph Buona, R-Ashburn, supports running the rail to Dulles, but said he’s uncertain whether other members of the board are with him.
“I think when you look at it, $2.7 billion is about $1.1 billion less than what the number could have been, so I thing it’s a very positive development,” he said.
Union labor on the project also remains a stumbling block for Loudoun.
Loudoun Chairman Scott York told the airports authority last week that its plan to give a 10 percent scoring bonus to companies that use a union-friendly labor agreement “threatens the entire project.”
Virginia leaders have threatened to withhold $150 million in funding for the project if the airports authority does not drop the incentive for union labor. Airports authority board members have warned that without the $150 million, tolls on the Dulles Toll Road, which help finance the rail line, could jump to $9 round-trip as early as 2013.
