After a year of debate over cost and convenience, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority voted 9-4 Wednesday to build an underground Metro station at Washington Dulles International Airport, ignoring protests from Fairfax and Loudoun county officials who will shoulder part of the project’s cost.
Fairfax, Loudoun and Virginia Department of Transportation officials had asked the airports authority to build an above-ground train station at the airport that would have cost about $300 million less than the underground station.
But authority officials said the underground station, which could be located 600 feet closer to the airport, was worth the additional cost.
“If we choose the [above-ground] north garage alternative, basically we would be settling for a second-class station at a first-class airport,” Mame Reiley, chairwoman of the MWAA Dulles Corridor committee, said.
The underground station represents the latest jump in the price tag of a massive transportation initiative to run Metro trains out to the airport. The cost of the second phase of the project, which includes the rail station at the airport, was originally estimated at $2.5 billion but jumped to the current $3.8 billion.
Overall, the 23-mile-long rail extension along the corridor is now expected to cost $6.6 billion, or $1.5 billion more than its original price tag of $5.1 billion.
In a letter sent to MWAA on Wednesday, Virginia Transportation Secretary Sean Connauhgton wrote that the airports authority’s choice “places undo financial burden on the project cost, making the commonwealth’s goal of a cost effective project hard to achieve.” He said the state would like to see the second-phase costs reduced closer to the original $2.5 billion estimate.
MWAA officials pledged to scour the entire project to determine where it can cut costs. Director Dennis Martire said he believes the authority will be able to recoup the $300 million additional cost of the underground station from other areas of the project. But Director Frank Connor said the project’s financing was far from certain.
“Is this the straw that breaks the camel’s back?” Connor said. “No one knows.”
Connor was one of four dissenting votes on the board of directors, in addition to Tom Davis, Michael O’Reilly and William Cobey Jr.
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Sharon Bulova said the county should not have to share the cost of MWAA’s decisions, as did Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Chairman Scott York.
“If the underground alignment endorsed by MWAA today results in an increase in the cost of Phase Two, then MWAA should be responsible for funding the difference in a way that does not increase the burden on Fairfax County residents or on Dulles Toll Road users,” Bulova said.
In addition to costing more, the underground station puts Dulles Rail project another six months behind schedule. Construction is now expected to be complete by June 2017.
