Rail Tunnel Advocates Running Out Of Steam

TysonsTunnel.org, the vocal grass-roots organization that has fought to place the proposed Metrorail stations at Tysons Corner underground, is out of money and has lost the support of its primary backer, the developer WestGroup.

Yet the organization will hold a rally May 19 to revive the debate and try to raise money, organizers said.

"TysonsTunnel and its tens of thousands of supporters will not throw in the towel," said the organization's founder, Scott Monett. "Northern Virginians who support TysonsTunnel want the commonwealth to fully explain why competitive bidding is unnecessary. We urge all TysonsTunnel supporters to come out May 19 to show that the fight still isn't over."

Monett's enthusiasm runs counter to a series of setbacks that the tunnel effort has endured recently. Last week, more than three months after declaring the rail project unqualified for funding, federal regulators reversed themselves and granted preliminary approval for an elevated Metrorail track through Tysons to Dulles International Airport.

Tunnel backers had viewed the Federal Transit Administration's near-rejection of the project in January as a boost for their goal of having the contract rebid and the line redesigned with a tunnel. But as federal regulators reconsidered their decision over the past three months, they refused to even meet with tunnel supporters.

"For the life of me, we don't understand why it wouldn't be put underground," said former U.S. transportation secretary William T. Coleman, an attorney representing WestGroup, the Tysons landowner and development company that provided TysonsTunnel.org with the bulk of its funding. Coleman said he sought an audience with Transportation Secretary Mary Peters but did not get one.

Monett said the same.

Coleman, Monett and others view a tunnel as being critical to the redevelopment of the Tysons business district into a walkable, livable downtown.

They also say that the contract for the $5 billion project's first phase, which would extend Metro from East Falls Church to Wiehle Avenue in Reston, was not bid with sufficient competition. They say the project could be built more cheaply, even with a tunnel through Tysons, if Virginia officials had allowed more open bidding.

Virginia leaders say Dulles Transit Partners, the private consortium awarded the contract, was subject to competition when it sought the design contract many years ago. Many types of state and federal contracts are awarded after considering a variety of factors and not merely cost, officials said.

WestGroup, in the meantime, has pulled away from TysonsTunnel.org. The company has provided no money to the group for more than a year, and its leaders are happy to see the rail project proceeding forward, spokesman Mark Lowham said.

"We still have concerns about the contract structure, but we're big advocates of rail, and we always have been," Lowham said.

Without WestGroup, the future of TysonsTunnel.org is uncertain. The group has spent more than $3 million on marketing and advocacy -- most of it from WestGroup -- and collected more than 10,000 signatures in favor of a tunnel.

Phase I is expected to be completed no earlier than 2013. Phase II, extending from Wiehle Avenue to the airport and beyond into Loudoun County, is likely to be completed no earlier than 2016, according to new estimates.

Federal officials are expected to make a final decision by the end of the year on whether to award a $900 million grant to help pay for the project. The rest of the cost will be paid by a combination of Dulles Toll Road receipts, special real estate taxing districts in Tysons and Reston, and state and local funds.