Supporters of resurrecting a plan to run Metrorail through a tunnel under Tysons Corner are seeking a hearing with local policy-makers, an attempt to garner key political support for the venture.
The movement, organized under the banner of the Greater McLean Chamber of Commerce’s Tysonstunnel.org, is driven by the widespread wish that the planned extension of Metrorail traverse Tysons underground, instead of overhead as in the current proposal for an elevated rail.
The group’s founder, Scott Monett, said they’ve raised $3.5 million so far from sources that include the influential Tysons landowner West*Group. Most of that money is funding new tunnel engineering plans the group wants the state to consider alongside the aerial track.
But the campaign will go nowhere if elected officials can’t be convinced to reverse course on a decision some say was cemented months ago. Some officials, including the Vienna Town Council and a handful of Fairfax County supervisors, have voiced support for the tunnel. Monett is urging residents to write to others — including congressmen and state leaders — in support of going underground.
The tunnel would have run four miles through Tysons as part of the new 23-mile track, linking commuters to the commercial hub with four stations. But Federal Transit Administration officials warned Gov. Tim Kaine in September that building the more expensive, more time-consuming tunnel would jeopardize $900 million in federal funds for the project because of stringent federal cost-benefit standards. Key congressional officials share that concern.
“Nobody wants the project jeopardized, that is clear as day to me,” Monett said.
Tysonstunnel.org is also seeking to have the entire rail project put out to bid, instead of being awarded on a noncompetitive basis to a consortium of firms that includes Bechtel, which oversaw some of Boston’s beleaguered Big Dig. Monett believes competitive bidding could draw down costs and make a tunnel under Tysons fit within those standards.
