Airports authority endorses aboveground Dulles rail station

“I know you’re underwhelmed by the secretary’s commitment, but I’ve never seen him spend so much time or pull out so much hair,” Rogoff said of LaHood during his briefing to the board. “This comes down to whether people want to work cooperatively toward a productive end.”

LaHood’s proposal

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More on this Story

• Metro line to Dulles could run $150 million over budget, official says
• Dulles rail project behind schedule
• Airports board wants state, feds to contribute more money for Dulles rail
• Airports authority endorses aboveground Dulles rail station

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LaHood offered to referee talks between the airports authority and other regional leaders when the stalemate over the Dulles station threatened to jeopardize the project.

A deal to trim the cost of the second phase to about $2.8 billion remained incomplete after a meeting at LaHood’s Southeast Washington offices Wednesday afternoon.

LaHood’s proposal requires the support of all regional investors, and there were signs Wednesday that elements of the plan were causing discomfort among some interested parties, including Fairfax County and Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R).

The draft agreement would apportion responsibility for finding savings among Virginia, Fairfax and Loudoun counties, Metro and the airports authority.

Snelling, the authority’s board chairman, said he wants his members to adopt an agreement with all of the project’s other partners at the board’s August meeting.

In a nod to Virginia’s desire for a greater role in overseeing the airports authority, the agreement would create an advisory committee to monitor the second phase of the project and to ensure that the project is “successfully deployed at a minimal cost.”

The panel would meet at least once a month and would include one member each from the state, the two counties, Metro and the airports authority.

“We want to include our partners in all the pertinent discussions as we go along planning the details of the project,” Snelling said.

Lingering misgivings

But the McDonnell administration continued to send mixed signals publicly about whether the governor intends to contribute $150 million toward the project. Rogoff told the airports authority Wednesday that LaHood has a “strong agreement” from McDonnell's transportation secretary.

After the meeting, McDonnell’s press secretary Jeff Caldwell said in a statement that “any reference to contributions from the Commonwealth is premature” because of the governor’s continued objections to the board’s decision to require the project’s lead contractor to sign a work agreement with organized labor.

Fairfax and Loudoun counties, meanwhile, have expressed a willingness to take on responsibility for constructing several station parking garages largely because of LaHood’s suggestion that federal loans would be available.

But Fairfax supervisors have balked at assuming the cost of the planned Route 28 Metro station. Board of Supervisors Chairman Sharon Bulova (D) on Wednesday called the station “problematic” and said the board would prefer that the state or federal governments help pay for it.

“We’re committed to rolling up our sleeves to finding another way to make it happen,” Bulova said.

Staff writer Fredrick Kunkle contributed to this report.