Virginia and Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority officials plan to submit a pared-down version of Dulles Rail next week, a plan that is likely to be $250 million to $300 million less expensive than the first version of the project.
The cuts come after a federal report last month raised serious concern over cost overruns for the first phase of the 23-mile Metrorail extension. The document estimated the cost of that phase at $2.83 billion, substantially more than what the Federal Transit Administration will allow under its cost-benefit regulations.
Officials say they will turn in the revised plan to the FTA before Friday.
They won’t, however, reveal exactly what they’re trimming from the project before then. All cost-cutting measures will need to be approved by the transit agency, which is still considering whether it can pledge $900 million in federal grants – a determination based largely on whether the new rail line will be cost effective in light of the number of riders it serves.
“We’re still working with all of our partners,” Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority spokeswoman Tara Hamilton said. “This is a continuing dialogue we’re going to be having with the FTA until they give us notice to go into final design.”
The FTA will soon begin work on its budget for the federal fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, 2008. In preparation for that it will draft a report on the “New Starts,” the grant program that would fund Dulles Rail, according to FTA spokesman Wes Irvin.
One likely cost-saving maneuver project officials will undertake is to seek to have some $70 million worth of road improvements to Route 7 considered separately from the project. Big hopes are also pinned to the establishment of a public private partnership at the Wiehle Avenue parking garage under which a builder would pay as much as $50 million to build the garage in exchange for other development rights. The idea has yet to get off the ground, however, and won’t be ready by Friday.
