Strapped for cash but resistant to changing course, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority is hoping the federal government will provide some of the additional money it needs to finish the Dulles Metrorail project. The authority is under pressure from state and local officials in Virginia to cut costs on the multibillion-dollar project. Officials’ top complaint is an underground subway station the authority wants to build at Washington Dulles International Airport instead of the aboveground station favored by local officials who would have to pay much of the additional $330 million the underground station would cost.
Rather than abandon plans for the underground station, however, authority officials are optimistic that they will be able to secure additional funding from the federal government even though Congress is currently slashing federal spending to get record budget deficits under control.
Airports authority chairman Charles Snelling insisted Wednesday that there are federal funds to pursue, despite the country’s budgetary woes.
“The federal government has an infinite number of options,” he said. “If we all come together — our board, the local partners [in Fairfax and Loudoun counties], the state and the federal partners — solutions will be found.”
Snelling’s challenge — and the reason he’s hoping for the feds to step in — is a billion-dollar difference between the original $2.5 billion estimate for the second phase of Dulles rail and the current price tag of $3.5 billion.
Costs increased for a variety of reasons, but largely because of the authority’s decision to build the Dulles station underground. Northern Virginia taxpayers and Dulles Toll Road users will pick up about 96 percent of the phase two price tag.
Local officials signed on to preliminary plans for an underground station before the recession, but are fighting it now to protect taxpayers and toll road users.
Overall, federal dollars accounted for about $900 million — or 29 percent — of the first phase of the Metrorail project, set to reach Dulles Airport and beyond by 2017, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. It is the third largest handout in the country for current transportation projects.
