Airports Authority to Control Toll Road
By Steven Ginsberg and Alec MacGillis
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Virginia leaders yesterday put the Washington airports authority in control of the Dulles Toll Road and construction of a Metrorail line to Dulles International Airport, a decision that cheered advocates of the rail project but led many others to question whether the authority would act in the best interests of commuters and the community.
The unusual deal gives a group whose primary responsibility is to operate Dulles International and Reagan National airports the ability to set tolls on a major local commuter route and to determine the scope of a rail line that could turn traffic-choked Tysons Corner into a walkable urban center.
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) hailed the deal as a boon for commuters. "It's a major victory for those who travel and commute throughout the region," Kaine said, adding that the "proposal guarantees that we will build rail all the way to Dulles Airport and into Loudoun County."
But Fairfax Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerald E. Connolly (D) said the agreement signed yesterday was "unacceptable" and threatened to withdraw Fairfax County's 25 percent share of the project's funding if the county isn't given more say over issues related to the rail line and highway. The supervisors agreed to draft a letter to that effect.
"We only asked for one modest thing, some protections, some ventilation mechanism to assure that issues like the setting of tolls be put on the agenda so we can discuss them mutually," Connolly said. He said that if the state and authority ignore the county's concerns, "they can address the remaining 25 percent. Our cooperation is contingent on the satisfaction of this."
William Vincent, a well-known advocate for bus rapid transit in the Dulles corridor, said the second phase of the project will be "100 percent borne by the people of Northern Virginia and run by an essentially unaccountable operation. Who do you report to, who do you complain to?"
The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority is eager to build a rail link to Dulles, because access is becoming ever more difficult in the traffic-congested region. The airport's competitors, National and Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, have rail links. Airport officials also see the line as key to getting the facility's approximately 20,000 employees to work.
The authority, governed by a 13-member board, will assume the Virginia government's role over the rail project and highway. It will be responsible for completing the rail line, including determining such key design details as tunneling under Tysons and building pedestrian bridges to Metro stations.
The deal revived long-standing tensions over the rail line's dual purposes of providing a link to the region's biggest airport and urbanizing Tysons Corner.
Because of cost concerns, the project was split in half, with the first phase ending in Reston. That led airport officials and business leaders to worry that the second phase, which would reach the airport, would never be built. Now, others worry that the authority won't be as committed to the Tysons portion. Already, cost constraints are threatening key features at Tysons, such as the pedestrian bridges, and making it likely that the train will have to be elevated through most of the area.
"There are big issues of accountability and oversight," said Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, which supports the rail line as long as it leads to an urbanized Tysons. "I think in their haste to get rail all the way out to the airport, [the authority] may not be willing to put time into these urban design issues."
Fairfax Supervisor T. Dana Kauffman (D-Lee), who is also on the Metro transit board, said the authority needs "to be concerned about more than just their front door."
State and airports authority officials rejected such criticisms. Virginia Transportation Secretary Pierce R. Homer said the agreement requires public hearings before toll increases and insists upon consultation with local officials.
"This agreement obviously gives the airports authority a much stronger voice in the process," he said. "However, the local governments, Fairfax and Loudoun, the Metro board and . . . the Federal Transit Administration have a very, very strong say in that process as well."
James E. Bennett, president and chief executive of the airports authority, said his goal is to "construct the rail line as the commonwealth and the entire Northern Virginia community has planned, and that includes going through Tysons. To the extent it's necessary to make changes, those changes will ultimately be made in consultation with all affected parties."
Bennett added: "Anytime anyone has any concerns about the actions of the authority, they can certainly make those concerns known to the board of directors."
The authority has a 13-member board, with five appointed by Virginia's governor, three by the District's mayor, two by the governor of Maryland and three by the U.S. president.
The rail project would extend Metro's Orange Line 23 miles from West Falls Church to Loudoun County. Leaders have said the $3.84 billion project, expected to be finished in 2015, will provide another transportation option for commuters while also taking many drivers off highways.
Under terms of the agreement with Virginia, the authority will also operate and maintain a highway that is used by nearly 400,000 commuters on a typical weekday, and it will have the power to negotiate a deal to bring high occupancy toll lanes to the corridor, a prospect the state was pursuing.
Dulles Transit Partners LLC remains under contract to build the rail line. Jennifer D. Aument, a spokesman for the consortium, said it is still waiting to learn about the new arrangement. "We don't know a whole lot more about how this will work than you do," she said.
The financing plan for the rail line calls for 50 percent to be paid by the federal government, 25 percent by the state and 25 percent by landowners along its corridor who've agreed to a special tax.
The state planned to use revenue from the Dulles Toll Road to pay its share. The authority will use that same revenue to take out bonds to pay for the state share and the federal share of the second phase. Virginia's limit on state borrowing leaves the state unable to do that kind of financing, officials said.
Staff writer Michael D. Shear contributed to this report.
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