Virginia lawmakers want to rein in a law that has formed the backbone of an increasing number of bigticket road and rail projects in Virginia, including the over-budget and much-delayed extension of Metro to Dulles.
Three bills introduced in the General Assembly this session would increase oversight and restrictions on the Public-Private Transportation Act of 1995, or PPTA, which has become the vehicle for billions of dollars’ worth of transit and road upgrades as state funding grows increasingly scarce.
Under the law, private companies can avoid parts of the traditional bidding process in favor of closed-door price negotiations with the state. One bill, submitted by Sen. Chap Peterson, D-Fairfax, would put any such project worth more than $1 billion under “the laws of the commonwealth requiring competitive bidding.”
Peterson said his bill rose out of the controversy over the Tysons tunnel, where supporters wanted to carry a three-mile segment of the rail through Tysons Corner. Critics argue one reason the tunnel can’t be built is because of the state’s refusal to reverse a “no-bid” contract with Bechtel Infrastructure and Washington Group International that calls for an aerial track. Gov. Tim Kaine said he killed the tunnel idea because it was too expensive.
“There was lot of discomfort in the community over the sole-source contract with [the firms], and people felt like the process had not been competitively bid,” Peterson said.
After one firm submitted a plan for the rail in 1998, the state asked for new proposals in five newspapers, which officials point to as evidence that Dulles Rail isn’t a “nobid” project.
The two other bills, though not nearly as farreaching as Peterson’s, would bring the PPTA under new scrutiny. One by Del.Vivian Watts, D-Annandale, a former transportation secretary, would establish a subcommittee to study competitive bidding under the law. She said her bill has nothing to do with the Dulles Rail controversy. The other, from Del. Joe May, RLeesburg, would bring PPTA projects under Virginia Department of Transportation’s six-year plan, which lays out priorities for state funding.
“I wanted to make sure we didn’t force a PPTA project into the mix and somehow get the rest of the programs out of sync,” he said.
