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Rail cost goes up again
The Dulles rail extension will take a year longer to build and will cost a little bit more than was previously estimated.
Last week, the board of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority pushed back the completion date of phase 1 of the Dulles rail project one year, to July 2013. The group also increased the contract with Dulles Transit Partners by $54 million, bringing the total cost of phase 1 to $2.6 billion.
"This renegotiation is to capture increased material cost and the cost of the delayed start," explained Jim Bennet, president and CEO of the airports authority.
Although the rail project's scale is such that $54 million is only a 3-percent increase in the contract price, the additional amount continues an upward trend in the project's cost since its inception.
The project was delayed for several months beyond the previously planned start date while the Federal Transit Administration considered the project's cost-effectiveness and eligibility to receive federal funding. During that time, the costs of fuel and construction materials rose significantly and the contractor had to maintain the salaries of project employees.
Bennet compared the contract change to building a house.
"You can imagine that if you told your contractor that he couldn't start building it until a year later than you thought, you'd have to renegotiate," Bennet said.
One of the main reasons behind the FTA's delay in granting final design approval on the project was a lack of cost-effectiveness – Phase 1 barely scraped by, even though it was considered under outdated and less stringent standards.
According to Bennet and Transportation Secretary Pierce Homer, future price increases are unlikely because the project is expected to get a full funding agreement from the FTA in January.
However, the FTA has made it clear that Metro's current infrastructure is insufficient to support the project and recent attempts to fund improvements to that infrastructure have run aground. Virginia was supposed to provide $50 million dollars to Metro during the special transportation session this summer but adjourned without passing any legislation. Federal attempts to create a dedicated funding source have also run into roadblocks in the U.S. Senate.
“Appropriate funding for the Metro system is important to our federal workforce,” said Virginia Sen. Jim Webb (D), in a released statement.
With infrastructure improvement such a high priority, it's possible that the local price tag for the rail project could rise to make up for gridlocked federal and state dollars.
"They're in a tough financial situation at the federal level, too," said Homer, who added that there are no plans for the rail project's price to increase any further.
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