Building the second leg of the Metrorail system to Dulles Airport is expected to cost $3.83 billion, hundreds of millions of dollars more than expected — and officials from cash-strapped local governments have little idea how to generate all that extra green.
The price tag for the second phase of the Dulles Rail project, which stretches 11.5 miles from Reston to beyond Washington Dulles International Airport, is estimated to cost $1 billion more than the project’s first phase, which is under construction, according to the project manager.
The second phase is supposed to be financed with a combination of funds from Loudoun and Fairfax counties, Virginia, and proceeds from the Dulles Toll Road. But as county officials scramble to scrounge together taxpayer dollars, and the federal government stays mum on whether it will help foot the bill, the Dulles Rail may run out of track well short of the airport.
Loudoun County Board Chairman Scott York said he was “very worried” about the new estimate, but said he would oppose another round of fare increases on the toll road.
“Citizens in Loudoun and others are already paying an arm and a leg and donating their children in order to use the toll road,” York said. “They can’t bear more costs.”
The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which oversees the Dulles Rail project and the Dulles Toll Road, this year approved a series of fare increases that will double toll prices for drivers by 2012. Those fares are expected to fund roughly 53 percent of the entire $6.5 billion rail project.
Airports authority spokeswoman Tara Hamilton said her agency would not consider additional fare increases through 2012. But taking the new cost estimates into account, Hamilton said all options would be on the table in 2013.
Hamilton stressed that the latest figure was an educated guess, not a final price tag, and the cost could drop more than $600 million if airport authorities move the airport’s Metro stop away from the terminal.
Still, the cost of the first phase rose more than $1 billion from the original estimate.
Hamilton said her agency announced the projection to allow state and local agencies plenty of time to plan.
“It’s up to the individual jurisdictions to decide how they’re going to develop resources to pay for their share of the project,” Hamilton said.
Loudoun is on the hook for at least $252 million — or 5 percent of the cost — and plans to pay through special tax districts, gas tax revenues and taxpayer dollars siphoned from the county’s capital improvement fund.
York said he hoped Virginia, which has agreed to kick in $275 million of the project’s total cost, would lobby the federal government for funding on top of the $900 million it contributed to Phase 1.
Stacey Johnson, spokeswoman for Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, said in an e-mail that the governor’s office was aware of the new funding estimates.
“The governor’s staff will be meeting with the [airports authority] within the next week to review the latest estimate and see what can be done,” Johnson said.
Fairfax supervisor and Metro board member Cathy Hudgins said she is worried about the price, but hopes cost concerns won’t overshadow the project’s long-term benefits.
“The cost is very much a problem,” she said. “But one of the things that we have to remember here is that we’re investing in a major, long-term, lifetime piece of infrastructure.”
Hudgins’ fellow county and Metro board member Jeff McKay urged residents and officials to holster their concerns until engineering and construction firms have submitted their proposals.
“I don’t think it’s time to panic, I think it’s time to put it out to bid,” McKay said.
The rail is scheduled to open in 2016.
