Virginia officials are concerned that the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority’s decision to build an underground station at Washington Dulles International Airport will drive commuters away from the Dulles Toll Road. Building the station underground will cost $330 million more than an above-ground alternative and money collected from the toll road is expected to cover about $225 million of that additional cost. Every extra $25 million could require a toll increase of a nickel, so that tolls could rise by as much as 50 cents just to pay the additional cost of the station, MWAA staff said.
MWAA is in the middle of a three-step toll increase to help pay for Metro construction. Tolls went up 25 cents at the main toll plaza in January, after being raised by 50 cents in 2009.
If tolls were raised 50 cents each year, it could cost $10 to travel one way on the toll road by 2030, Director Tom Davis said.
“In the future, it could end up costing more to ride the toll road than it could to ride the Metro,” Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Chairman Scott York said. “So everybody then could use the rail, and no one would ride the toll road. I wonder what MWAA would do then to pay the bill?”
