Federal, state and local officials are increasing pressure on the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority to drop its plans to build an underground Metro station at Washington Dulles International Airport. The underground location would cost about $330 million more to build than an aboveground station – a cost to be shouldered mainly by Virginia taxpayers and Dulles Toll Road users. A variety of officials – from the county board chairmen of Fairfax and Loudoun to Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va. – are demanding that the authority reconsider its pricier underground decision.
In addition, Republicans have spoken out against MWAA’s decision to require contractors working on the project to use union labor, an anomaly in Virginia, a right-to-work state that eschews labor unions. Democrats, including Fairfax Chairwoman Sharon Bulova, downplayed that union dispute, saying the main issue is the location of the Metro stop.
Wolf, when pressed, agreed. “Most of this is about the station,” he said. “That’s the large driver.”
Amid the increasing pressure, airports authority board Chairman Charles Snelling offered Monday to meet with Virginia leaders to discuss the reasoning behind the board’s choice of an underground station and the additional cost.
The total price tag for the second phase of Dulles Rail construction, which includes the Metro station at the airport, was originally expected to cost $2.5 billion. That estimate has since ballooned to $3.8 billion.
For now, officials seem content to rely on further negotiation, emphasizing hope for a friendly resolution to the station dilemma before resorting to more drastic measures.
Wolf refused to elaborate on steps the state or Congress could take to force MWAA’s hand, saying only, “There are other things.”
Fairfax and Loudoun officials are looking to state officials for a potential solution. So far, however, Transportation Secretary Sean Connaughton has kept mum on the state’s next move, as has Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.
Relatively simple fixes are available, however, according to officials familiar with the matter. Virginia officials could go to the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board and request that planners nix an underground option. Or, have Wolf insert a provision in a federal appropriations bill saying that federal money could not be spent on an underground station.
