U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf is asking for an independent audit of the Dulles Rail project to prevent another Big Dig-escalation and to “ensure the project is built at the lowest cost possible.”
The Virginia Republican wrote a letter Tuesday to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority that is building the 23-mile rail line connecting the Metro system to Washington Dulles International Airport and beyond.
He said the project needs an independent set of eyes. If the authority doesn’t add one, he said he would ask the U.S. Department of Transportation’s inspector general to step in.
In September, the regional authority had estimated the second phase of the project extending to the airport and into Loudoun County would cost $3.83 billion, more than $1 billion over original estimates. The first phase, currently under construction, is costing about $2.75 billion.
Wolf wrote that he doesn’t want the project to become like Boston’s Big Dig, which ballooned to more than $22 billion from an original price tag of $2.6 billion.
He is also worried that turnover at the top of the airports authority may lead to a “vacuum in leadership” as bids go out for the remainder of the project, which has been informally dubbed ithe Silver Line. The authority’s chief executive, James Bennett, stepped down earlier this year and the former chief financial officer who now heads the agency is planning to retire.
