Final construction of Mulligan Road – the road intended to alleviate traffic congestion around Fort Belvoir – was supposed to start months ago. But Fairfax County officials say bureaucracy and disputes over the contract have halted work on the partially complete project, leaving gridlocked commuters stranded on Route 1 while Mulligan Road sits unfinished.
The Federal Highway Administration awarded the Mulligan Road contract to Shirley Contracting earlier this year, but was forced to stop the project after a competing firm protested to the Government Accountability Office that the bidding process had violated the agency’s statutes, according to county officials.
The protest was ultimately dismissed and in September the highway administration again awarded the Mulligan Road contract to Shirley Contracting. Work was supposed to begin Oct. 11. It didn’t. The company that protested the first bid filed a second protest over the new bid.
The new delay could stretch another 100 days, the county says.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted unanimously to write to the highway administration urging it to minimize the construction delays and to ask the county’s congressional delegation to step up pressure on highway officials to get the project moving.
“This is bureaucracy at its worst,” said Lee Supervisor Jeffrey McKay, who urged the board to act on the stalled project. “The entire story of this project has been delay after delay. It’s not like we’re building the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.”
Highway administration officials had no immediate comment on the bidding process.
But supervisors say a swift completion of construction on Mulligan Road would help, at least in the short-term, to break the rush-hour gridlock around Fort Belvoir and called the current situation “distressing.”
“Nothing could be more important than the short term completion of this road,” said Supervisor Gerry Hyland of Mount Vernon.
