With the Dulles Rail Deal All but Dead, What's a Gridlocked State to Do?

(Illustration By Di Domenico & Partners)

¿ Ditch Bechtel. The company that last week agreed to shell out $352 million to settle claims against its botched work on Boston's Big Dig tunnel project is also one of the two big companies that make up Dulles Transit Partners, which got the contract to design and build the rail line. The feds don't mention Bechtel in their letter, but they express deep concern about likely cost overruns and delays, an echo of the horrific experience in Massachusetts.

¿ Bag the airports authority. The feds did get specific about their doubts that the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which the state chose to run the Dulles rail construction process, has the experience needed to control the costs and schedule of such a complex project.

¿ Give Metro the dedicated funding stream it desperately needs. Metro has no steady source of money for capital projects and operational costs. "Metro -- unlike all other major systems -- remains uniquely dependent on annual operating subsidies from its member jurisdictions as well as revenue it generates internally from passenger fares, advertising and parking," the Brookings Institution's Robert Puentes writes.

Extending Metro won't make anyone's commute a breeze, but it is an important step toward easing the rate of growth of congestion, and it's a necessity if the airport is to support the state's main engine of economic expansion.

The feds' move guarantees a few more years of worsening pain for Virginia commuters. Beyond that, it's an opportunity for political and business leaders to go back to the drawing board and produce a streamlined plan for another administration to consider.