The final version of the Virginia General Assembly’s two-year budget will not force the Kaine administration to put the Dulles Rail project out to bid, dashing the House’s hopes of securing a cheaper deal on the rail extension to save its funding.
The provision, inserted by Del. Dave Albo, R-Springfield, and Del. Joe May, R-Leesburg, was stripped from the $77 billion budget in the final days of negotiation, budget negotiators said.
The move was aimed at reducing the cost of the rail to fit the Federal Transit Administration’s guidelines for funding and allow the agency to commit a critical $900 million. It would have scrapped the existing construction contract for the rail’s 11.6-mile first phase with Bechtel Infrastructure and Washington Group International in favor of a new round of competitive bidding.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Colgan, D-Manassas, said new bidding would have been a “breach of contract” with the companies. Gov. Tim Kaine has made similar remarks, warning such a decision would sour other companies on doing business with the state.
The FTA has not decided whether the track will receive funding, but has repeatedly signaled that the project is too expensive for its projected ridership to meet cost-benefit standards, among other management and funding problems. Without the money, the project has no apparent means of moving forward.
Proponents of re-bidding warn that doing nothing to change Dulles Rail could lead to its demise. With the FTA indicating that a decision could come within weeks, Albo said “we’ll have to wait and see” whether the governor “doing the same thing he’s been doing for months is able to pull it off.”
