For McLean Chamber Group, Tysons Tunnel Dream Endures

The project's contractors, a consortium led by construction giant Bechtel, said a large-bore tunnel would still be too expensive. Tunnel supporters challenged this, noting that Bechtel stood to lose the Tysons portion of the job to another company if the state went with a tunnel. Kaine commissioned a study by engineers who reported back that a tunnel was preferable and would cost only about $200 million more.

Tunnel skeptics questioned this estimate, which they deemed overly optimistic. Among them were Reps. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.) and Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), the project's top congressional sponsors, who wrote to Kaine reminding him that the project must meet federal "cost-effectiveness" standards. These rules, meant to prevent costly boondoggles, rate projects according to their benefits and their total cost, not just the expected federal share. Even if the state covered the cost of a tunnel, the project might be deemed too costly and lose the $900 million federal contribution (the rest of the project is covered by a tax on landowners along the line and revenue from the Dulles Toll Road.) The delay caused by changing designs could also imperil funding, the congressmen wrote.

Kaine was inclined to endorse a tunnel anyway. But immediately after a meeting with Wolf, Davis and Federal Transit Administration officials in early September, Kaine announced that the tunnel was dead.

Local officials and residents are still apportioning responsibility. Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerald E. Connolly (D) faulted Wolf and Davis for their warning letter to Kaine. By publicly stating their concerns about a tunnel, Connolly said, the congressmen undermined Kaine's ability to gain more flexibility from the FTA.

The letter "made crystal clear to the FTA that there would be no pressure from Congress" on behalf of a tunnel, Connolly said. "They could've written a different letter, and they didn't. They could've said, 'We're going to stand by you if you want a tunnel. We're going to fight for it.' "

Wolf denies any role in the tunnel's demise, saying the decision was Kaine's. "Governor Kaine could have gone any way he wanted," he said. "Nobody forced the governor to make that decision."

An FTA spokesman concurred, saying that the decision had been the governor's.

Metro board member Gordon Linton, a former FTA chief, said the tunnel's demise shows that the cost-effectiveness rules need to be revised. It was "wrongheaded," he said, to discourage local governments against spending their money on upgrades that would increase a project's chances for success.

Others, including Davis, point to the state, Fairfax and Metro officials, who ruled out a tunnel until the last-minute consideration of the large-bore option. If the option had been explored earlier, there would have been more time to weigh it without risk of delay.

The initial preference for an aboveground line "was driven by the local government," Davis said. "For them to sit back now and blame the federal government, I'm incredulous."

A Metro spokeswoman said the large-bore option wasn't considered until last year because it hadn't been used in North America. But Walter Mergelsberg, a former Metro engineer, said that wasn't reason enough to rule out the technology, noting plenty of examples of its success in similar projects. "Someone should have raised it," he said. "It was a no-brainer that it was adaptable to Tysons."

Mergelsberg's firm, the Herndon-based Dr. Sauer Group, is part of a team now producing tunnel designs. The tunnel group says it is close to raising enough to cover the engineers' discounted $3 million price. Last week, it received a $1,000 check from Fairfax Supervisor and Metro board member T. Dana Kauffman (D-Lee). But it is relying mostly on companies such as WestGroup, which says an elevated track would harm its plans to transform its end of Tysons with apartments and shops.

The hope, tunnel supporters say, is that when the Bechtel consortium issues its final price in coming months, it will be higher than the state expected, closer to the estimated tunnel cost. Presented with the tunnel designs, the state could then break off its contract with the consortium, an unusual public-private partnership, and rebid the project.

There is also a hope among tunnel supporters that with the Democrats taking over Congress, officials such as Rep. James P. Moran (D-Va.) or Sen.-elect James Webb (D-Va.) could urge a new look at the tunnel. State officials say that is unlikely.

Scott Monett, the McLean Chamber president leading the tunnel group, acknowledged the long odds but said the support the group is getting justified its bid.

"People are just coming out of the woodwork," he said. "They're raising hell. They're upset that no one is standing up for the tunnel, because it's the right thing to do."