The Reston Citizens Association has joined a growing chorus of Northern Virginia officials pressing the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority to rein in the cost of constructing the Dulles Metrorail extension. As the project’s costs rise, tolls on the Dulles Toll Road could soar to $15 by 2047 to pay the bill, the group said in a new report. Reston residents worry that the higher tolls will be too much for a town essentially split down the middle by the Dulles Toll Road.
“Many of us live on the toll road, and essentially we question the fairness of using the toll money for construction and increasing them,” said association member John Hanley. “It’s just an incredible amount of money that’s going to be taken out of people’s pockets.”
The Metro project’s second phase is expected to cost $3.8 billion, far above the original estimate of $2.5 billion.
Fairfax and Loudoun counties and top Virginia officials, including Gov. Bob McDonnell, stepped up their criticism of MWAA after the authority decided to build an underground station at Washington Dulles International Airport at a cost of about $330 million more than an aboveground station design favored by county and state officials who will help pay for it.
The report underscores the need for a new traffic-and-revenue study of the Dulles Toll Road based on the latest construction cost estimates, said Peter Samuel, editor of Tollroadnews.
“Since more and more of the costs of Dulles Rail are being loaded onto the backs of Dulles Toll Road drivers, we need a new assessment of the strength of these backs,” Samuel said. “How much will they carry in tolls?”
MWAA officials pledged to review the entire project to find enough savings to partially offset the additional expense of the underground station.
“The only toll-payers who can be gotten to pay these kinds of tolls are motorists traveling in the New York area on bridges and tunnels where there are no free alternatives,” Samuel said.
