A 1995 law meant to help Virginia fast-track transportation projects and hold down their cost has done neither for the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project, critics said Friday after officials announced further delays and price escalations.
The Public Private Transportation Act has long come under fire for allowing officials to circumnavigate the bidding process, to some extent and negotiate directly with contractors for the 23-mile rail extension to Loudoun County. Critics accuse the commonwealth of doing away with real competition and shrouding the project in secrecy through closed-door talks with private firms.
Now, the ostensible benefits of the state’s use of the law in rail-to-Dulles are being challenged and some argue it has not lived up to its original purpose and has led to a lopsided deal for the projects two contractors, Bechtel and Washington Group International.
“This act is supposed to bring about projects faster, cheaper, [more] innovative with a firm fixed price,” said Fairfax County Supervisor Dana Kauffman, who also sits on Metro’s board. “When you get four strikeouts, you get the private sector inventing their own ballgame.”
Revelations on Friday did little to allay concerns. Virginia officials announced an agreement for the first phase of the rail that could range from $2.4 to $2.7 billion and drag the completion date into 2013 – two years after that phase was originally scheduled for completion.
The Public Private Transportation Act was also created to bring significant private dollars to transportation projects, which hasn’t been the case in rail-to-Dulles, according to Trip Pollard, director of the Land and Community Project for the Southern Environmental Law Center.
“This hasn’t brought significant private money to the table,” he said. “It’s all going to be paid for with taxpayer dollars.”
Arguing to the contrary, project spokeswoman Marcia McAllister pointed to contractor’s agreement to accept the cost of correcting any problems that may emerge in the project’s engineering plans. Bechtel and Washington Group, however, also prepared those plans. Coalition for Smarter Executive Director Growth Stewart Schwartz said the law is “resulting in less transparency, less competition, and does not appear to have saved public tax dollars.”
McAllister pointed to planning stages that were open to the public input — like the environmental impact process and some 200 public meetings on setting the track’s alignment.
