Virginians upset that the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority is running up costs of the Dulles Rail project can blame decisions made by their state officials a few years back. The state in 2006 decided to transfer control of the project to the airports authority and now officials find themselves battling the authority over what they see as runaway costs.
“We have a project that’s being administered by an authority in which the commonwealth and its funding partners have very little say,” Virginia Secretary of Transportation Sean Connaughton said. “Now, some of the negative sides of the transfer are becoming quite apparent.”
Connaughton has joined Fairfax and Loudoun county leaders in pressuring MWAA to drop its plans to build an underground Metro station at Washington Dulles International Airport, and build instead an aboveground station that would be slightly farther from the terminal but cost $330 million less.
Connaughton’s biggest challenge is that his hands are fairly well tied because of a decision made during Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine’s administration to grant MWAA authority over the project. While Virginians will fund more than 90 percent of the Dulles Rail project through tax dollars and Dulles Toll Road fees, MWAA’s board also includes representatives from Maryland and the District, who have no responsibility for the funding.
In 2006, putting the authority in charge of the mega-project made sense.
During the Clinton administration, the federal government was expected to pay half the project’s cost. But that funding disappeared under then-President George W. Bush, said Kenny Klinge, former chairman of the Dulles Corridor Task Force, now consulting with MWAA. Facing the possibility of raising tolls or charging counties more, Virginia officials turned the unpopular task over to the authority.
“Politicians like to get rid of bad news,” Klinge said.
MWAA was chosen over private contractors to take control of the project and to operate the toll road, in part, because MWAA already controlled the adjacent Dulles Access Road and because it could issue tax-free bonds.
If Virginia stripped MWAA of its control of the project, the state would have to assume more than $1 billion in bond obligations owed by MWAA.
“Virginia doesn’t want that,” Klinge said.
But state officials don’t want to quit the project either, despite their frustrations with the higher-than-expected costs.
“This project is about the economic engine of the commonwealth, the Dulles Corridor,” Klinge said. “If this project isn’t there, the corridor won’t die, but it won’t reach its full potential.”
Transportation officials and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli are “examining all of our options,” Connaughton said.
“The simplest solution would be for the MWAA board to reconsider its decision,” he said.
