If there is one person who still doubts that the Dulles Rail project is a financial land mine for Fairfax County taxpayers, he or she need only read a devastating critique by William Coleman, former secretary of transportation. His observation that the contract poses “unusual risks” for county taxpayers is merely a diplomatic preface to a howitzer barrage against a contract the signers refuse to make public.
Now we know why. In a June 14 letter to Fairfax Board Chairman Gerry Connolly obtained by The Examiner, Coleman warned that the contract is full of “non-standard provisions.” Here is a sampling:
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» Unprecedented secrecy: Coleman characterizes secrecy provisions regarding the scope of the work, schedule and completion dates, cost itemization and escalation formulas — all of which he says are critical to oversight of the project — as “unprecedented in a public contract.”
» No firm fixed price: Although Virginia officials promised taxpayers a fixed price for all construction work, only 41 percent of the Phase 1 price is fixed, leaving taxpayers responsible for rising material and equipment costs. This means that the quoted price of $2.1 billion “merely becomes a floor, not the actual [cost] or ceiling,” Coleman points out.
» Premature contract award: Signing a construction contract before the final design is approved “was also an area of serious problems in the [Boston] ‘Big Dig’ project,” in which DTP partner Bechtel also played a major role.
» Lower standard for change orders: Standard transit contracts require work to stop and the contracting officer to investigate any on-site claims before expensive change orders are approved, but this contract “materially lowers the threshold that DTP must meet to make and argue for Change Orders and Delay Claims” — also an area of significant cost overruns in the “Big Dig.”
» Important costs excluded: Route 7 improvements, escalators, elevators, bus bays and pedestrian bridges — all of which are actually “integral Phase 1 project work,” Coleman says. But these essential costs are not included in the final design-build contract.
Is there nobody in Washington or Virginia with the guts and authority to stop this outrage from taking one more step forward?
