Virginia Transportation Secretary Pierce Homer announced Monday that an independent panel of civil engineers will have 60 days to come up with a way to tunnel under Tysons Corner and still meet strict cost-effectiveness standards for the Dulles Rail project now under consideration by the Federal Transit Administration.
The “final design” submitted to the FTA eliminates the underground stations that were supposed to turn Tysons into a pedestrian paradise similar to Ballston in Arlington. Tunneling adds another $800 million, according to the state and private contractor. Fairfax County officials claim Dulles Transit Partners — which includes Bechtel Corp., best known for managing Boston’s troubled “Big Dig” — is overstating the costs of going underground. The opposite is far more likely.
Instead of Ballston, think downtown Chicago — with elevated trains screeching overhead on 27-foot-high tracks anchored by huge concrete columns down the middle of Route 7. Three elevated stations would be accessible only by very long walks to pedestrian bridges (which were themselves initially eliminated to keep costs down). The Washington Airports Task Force admitted that this configuration would significantly dampen already marginal ridership numbers. An earlier airport access study by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments determined that just 1 in 200 air passengers would use Dulles Rail; the airport station is projected to have the lowest head count of all 75 Metro stations, including the all-but-deserted stop at Arlington Cemetery.
Tysons would be better served by a street-level bus rapid transit system that’s able to crisscross the very-spread-out business district. According to FTA documents, BRT was actually the preferred mode as late as February 2003; three years after preliminary engineering was approved, the Dulles project was still listed as a BRT fixed-guideway alternative. Total cost to the airport: $357 million. The federal government even offered to pay up to 90 percent as part of a national demonstration project.
But the Fairfax County Board chose heavy rail as the “locally preferred option” instead. In November 2004, the BRT application was withdrawn and replaced with the current $4 billion heavy rail submission. Contributions from wealthy Tysons landowners included in a special tax district — including Nats owner Ted Lerner and SAIC, employer of Board Chairman Gerry Connolly — were capped at $400 million, even though they stand to gain an estimated $4 billion in increased property values.
But there’s no cap for Dulles Toll Road commuters. Gov. Tim Kaine’s unprecedented deal with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority gives 13 unelected members (only five are from Virginia) of this quasi-governmental agency unlimited power to raise tolls on a critical local commuter route.
Continuing efforts to jam an underground tunnel into a commercial district that was specifically designed for cars — and which remains extremely hazardous for pedestrians — is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. State and local officials need to go back to the BRT proposal they inexplicably abandoned.BRT is not only much cheaper and faster to build than an underground tunnel, it’s far more versatile than rail and aesthetically superior to the current elevated monstrosity.
