A provision tucked in a state budget bill in an 11th-hour attempt to salvage Dulles Rail would force the Kaine administration to put the project out for new bids and address criticisms from a 2007 federal audit.
The measure aims to restructure the 23-mile project’s first phase in order to secure a key $900 million infusion of federal funds, which the Federal Transit Administration is unlikely to approve unless drastic changes are made.
“The project is dead,” said Del. Dave Albo, R-Springfield, who drafted the language with Del. Joe May, R-Leesburg. “It’s gone, and whoever thinks they’re going to save this thing by submitting the same plan is living in a fantasy world.”
If successful, the provision would almost certainly scrap the existing public-private partnership with Bechtel Infrastructure and Washington Group International in favor of a new round of bidding. It could also split the contract into smaller component parts in the hopes of securing a smaller price tag, and make other engineering and management changes.
The provision seeks to address problems laid out last summer in a U.S. Department of Transportation audit, which criticized Dulles Rail’s ballooning cost and numerous slipped deadlines and said the contract was reached through “limited” competition.
Albo included the measure in a current-year budget act that passed the House Appropriations Committee on Sunday, and is likely to reach the House floor this week, after which it will head to the Senate.
The FTA said last month the rail is too expensive for the relatively small number of riders it will serve, that the project’s managers are too inexperienced with large-scale transit projects, and that Metro doesn’t have the funding to run it. While the price tag of the initial 11.6-mile leg is disputed, the FTA says it will cost more than $3 billion.
Gov. Tim Kaine has sought to salvage Dulles Rail by offering to make changes to suit the FTA, but has not suggested anything nearly as extensive as re-bidding the entire track.
Virginia Transportation Secretary Pierce Homer could not be reached for comment Monday.
