Good thing Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) interim president Lynn Hampton is not a member of the Fourth Estate. When talking about the Dulles Rail Project, she got away with telling 300 guests at a recent Washington Airports Task Force luncheon: “If I were writing the headlines for the Washington Post, it would say: ‘We are moving forward — on time and on budget.’?” That statement would be laughable to anyone who has read The Washington Examiner for the past four years, as we’ve repeatedly pointed out the cost over-runs, mismanagement and misleading rhetoric that have marked this project from its inception. A Sept. 10 Washington Post article noted a $2.76 billion price tag for Phase 1. That is 50 percent higher than the figure in the federally mandated Final Environmental Impact statement released just three years ago. MWAA also admitted that construction estimates for Phase 2 are $1.35 billion higher than previously announced. Such overruns are the rule rather than the exception in most large public works projects, in which initial costs are typically low-balled to gain public approval, then jacked up when construction begins. However, in this case, the public deceptions run even deeper.
On Jan. 15, 2003, when the Transportation Planning Board announced Dulles Rail as the Locally Preferred Alternative after it had been approved by local, state and regional authorities, the entire cost for all 23-plus miles was pegged at $3.14 billion. Now it’s $6.87 billion, including the planned underground airport station at Dulles International Airport’s main terminal. If MWAA moves the station away from the terminal, fewer people will take Metro to the airport. But a less expensive station at ground level will mar the view of the historic structure designed by architect Eero Saarinen.
