A Virginia transportation official said the state plans to pursue a contract with Dulles Transit Partners to design and build the Metrorail extension through Tysons Corner, despite a competing proposal and the connection of a major partner in the group to a fatal Big Dig accident.
“We’re moving toward negotiations with Dulles Transit Partners,” said Deputy Transportation Secretary Scott Kasprowicz. “We’re assuming we’re going to have a successful outcome there.”
The contract would be an extension of a no-bid state partnership with Bechtel Infrastructure Inc. and Washington Group International, which make up the partners. The firms have already done preliminary engineering work on the $4 billion project, and are now vying to take on the first 11.6-mile phase that would send rail either over or under Tysons Corner. Bechtel jointly conducted design work and oversaw construction on Boston’s troubled Big Dig, a massive multi-billion-dollar tunnel project. A tunnel ceiling segment collapsed on July 10, killing a motorist. The incident is now the subject of federal and state investigations.
“We’re very proud to have been a part of the project [and] we’re going to support every effort to investigate the accident,” said Bechtel spokesman Howard Menaker.
Kasprowicz said officials are not reconsidering Bechtel’s involvement in the Dulles Metrorail extension as a result of the accident.
“We’re going to be scrupulous in our analysis, regardless of who builds anything in the commonwealth,” he said.
Westgroup, a consortium of companies that includes Spanish firm Dragados, has submitted a price and designproposal to the governor and secretary of transportation to take on the project, according to Kasprowicz. He would not comment on whether that proposal is under consideration. Gov. Tim Kaine is expected to announce whether the four-mile Tysons Corner portion of the rail extension will be constructed as a tunnel or an elevated track by the end of the month. A state-commissioned study released findings last week that a tunnel would be feasible, despite it costing $250 million more and taking a year longer to build.
