Kaine's Pick Is Said to Be Tunnel For Tysons
Campaign Backers Push Rail Choice

By Alec MacGillis
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 27, 2006

Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) is close to deciding in favor of building a Metrorail extension to Dulles International Airport below ground through Tysons Corner rather than on an elevated track, sources say, despite critics who say it could imperil the entire project.

With the announcement, expected in the next few days, tunnel supporters would have managed in less than a year to overhaul a $4 billion project that was to begin construction early next year with an elevated track. Among those who have argued most forcefully for a tunnel are two of Kaine's top campaign supporters: WestGroup, the biggest Tysons landowner, and Scott Kasprowicz, a former telecom executive whom Kaine hired this year as a deputy transportation secretary.

Whether to build the four-mile stretch through Tysons below ground has become the defining question for the 23-mile extension, and for Fairfax County. Proponents of a tunnel say it is key to one of the project's main goals: transforming Tysons into a walkable, vibrant downtown. Critics, though, including the project's top congressional sponsors, say the costs of a tunnel and the delays involved in changing the design could doom the rail extension.

Most indications from Richmond suggest that Kaine will endorse the below-ground route, according to contractors, local officials and others involved in the project who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of upstaging the governor. Last month, a panel of engineers, convened at the state's request, recommended a tunnel, saying its extra cost and time would be worth it because it would benefit Tysons in the long run and cause less traffic disruption during construction.

Going with a tunnel would raise many questions, most notably how to cover the extra cost, which tunnel supporters estimate at $200 million but which skeptics say would run higher. Options mentioned so far include increasing the special tax that Tysons landowners are paying for the project or raising tolls on the Dulles Toll Road, which are already covering half the project's cost.

The project faces other major hurdles. A new design would have to pass muster with the Federal Transit Administration, which could withdraw the $900 million it is expected to provide if it deems the project's overall price tag too high. A tunnel design also would have to undergo environmental reviews and engineering design that supporters say would delay the project by a year but others say would take longer. There is the chance of a dispute with the current builders if the state decides to seek another contractor for the Tysons portion of the line.

Moreover, the state must complete the planned hand-over of the project to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which had been expecting to inherit a plan with an elevated track and has not said publicly whether it supports a tunnel design. And all this would have to be accomplished in an uncertain political landscape. By going with a tunnel, the state effectively would be overruling the project's main congressional sponsors, Republican Reps. Frank R. Wolf and Thomas M. Davis III, who argue that switching to an underground route carries many risks.

Patricia Nicoson, director of the Dulles Corridor Rail Association, a nonprofit group that supports rail to Dulles, said the most important thing is that everyone will soon know what the design will be.

"The decision will finally be made," she said. "I'm ready to roll up shirtsleeves and make the tunnel happen."

The creation of a "Silver Line" to Dulles, which would be one of Metro's largest expansions in years, is seen as speeding the trip to the airport and easing congestion throughout Tysons and the crowded Dulles corridor. Under the initial plan, the extension was scheduled to reach Tysons by 2011 and Dulles by 2015. Although the state has made all the key decisions until now, it is planning to hand over the project to the airports authority in the coming months. The line would start at the West Falls Church station, have four stops in the Tysons area, pass through Reston and end in Loudoun County just beyond the airport.

Less than a year ago, contractors were advancing plans for a mostly elevated route through Tysons. But Metro officials, who had previously ruled out building a tunnel at Tysons using conventional digging techniques because of the cost, began calling for consideration of a potentially more efficient option: a wide-bore tunneling machine that has been used in Europe and Asia but not the United States.

The project's contractors, a consortium of Bechtel Corp. and Washington Group International, calculated that that technique would still be too expensive. Tunnel supporters, including Fairfax officials and Tysons landowners, nonetheless persuaded state officials to take a closer look at the below-ground option. Wolf and Davis, key backers of the rail extension, warned that a switch to a tunnel could imperil crucial federal funding. But the engineering panel enlisted by the state endorsed a below-ground route.

Davis reiterated his concerns yesterday. "I don't think there are any guarantees that the FTA will approve the project," he said. "I don't think they can make this thing bulletproof." The congressman said he is expecting a call from Kaine in the next couple of days to address his and Wolf's concerns.

"We'd rather have a tunnel," Davis said. "The question is, what additional risks are you undertaking by doing this at the last minute?"

In recent months, the tunnel advocacy of WestGroup and Kasprowicz has been pivotal, say those involved in the project.

WestGroup officials argue that building underground would enhance their urban-style redevelopment plans and would help transform the rest of Tysons. A tunnel would not permit added zoning density but would allow landowners to build closer to the line's route.

Last month, the company privately promoted a bid from a group of contractors who say they can build a tunnel, along with the rest of the line from West Falls Church through the Tysons area, for much less than the Bechtel team is proposing. In a July 24 letter to Kaine, WestGroup's president and chief executive, Gerald T. Halpin, said the rival proposal was "highly credible" and would "be resoundingly welcomed by the community, could be built without tearing Tysons to pieces in the process, and would be a superior result lasting generations." His letter included a list of estimated costs from the companies and a timeline that showed the project would be set back only about a year.

One week later, the engineering panel endorsed the tunnel, saying the rival bid helped persuade it that a tunnel would be affordable, even as critics said the proposal lacked detail and guarantees.

WestGroup and its president have donated heavily to local and state candidates -- more than $1 million in the past decade -- with Kaine receiving particularly strong support. Since 2004, the company has given about $175,000 to Kaine and state Democratic political action committees, most of it an "in-kind" contribution of office space, records show. Since 2001, Halpin has given $150,000 to Kaine and $75,000 to Democratic PACs.

Kaine has received tens of thousands more from another company Halpin founded, World Resources, and from other WestGroup executives. And World Resources, Halpin and WestGroup employees have in recent years given thousands to Fairfax Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerald E. Connolly (D), another key tunnel supporter.

WestGroup executive Mark C. Lowham said Kaine's decision on a tunnel should not be a reflection of his support from the company.

It "will stand on its own merits," he said. "We've attempted to make the case for the tunnel to the governor and . . . other political leaders because we believe it's in the best interests of the community."

Driving the push toward a tunnel within the administration has been Kasprowicz, a former board member of the Piedmont Environmental Council, a group that advocates growth near transit stations. The Loudoun resident sold Texel, a voice and data communications company he founded, in 1998. Since then, he has managed several properties he owns, including an office building near the planned rail line in Reston.

Records show he has contributed about $163,000 to Kaine since 2001. Nearly all of that, Kasprowicz said, was an in-kind contribution, flying Kaine across the state in his helicopter or in an airplane he has access to. He said his contributions have nothing to do with Kaine's move toward a tunnel. Kaine, he says, simply shares the same beliefs: that transportation decisions should be made with land-use impacts in mind, and vice versa.

Kaine spokesman Kevin Hall would not confirm that a decision has been made on a tunnel and said that neither WestGroup's nor Kasprowicz's past support was a factor in Kaine's thinking. "The contributions have absolutely no impact," he said. "What we are concerned about is the viability of a vibrant community and region and its critical infrastructure."

Other companies involved in the project are also prodigious donors, although not to Kaine. Bechtel has given about $350,000 to national parties in the past four years, and Washington Group International has given $4,000 to Connolly since the 2003 election.