Tysons Tunnel Supporters Raise Money to Continue Fight

Supporters of a tunnel for the Tysons Corner portion of a Metrorail extension to Dulles International Airport vowed to fight on last night, even as they acknowledged the overwhelming odds against changing the aerial design of the project.

More than 100 tunnel supporters gathered at a McLean restaurant to raise money for tysonstunnel.org, a grass-roots organization that has led opposition to the elevated-track design awaiting approval for federal funding. They were joined by state Sen. J. Chapman "Chap" Petersen (D-Fairfax), Fairfax County Supervisor John W. Foust (D-Dranesville) and two Democratic congressional candidates in the 11th District, Leslie L. Byrne and Doug Denneny.

"It is unfathomable that this project shouldn't go to Dulles and shouldn't go through a tunnel under Tysons," Denneny said to heavy applause. "There is no other way it can be done."

Tunnel supporters have argued for more than a year that an elevated track will ruin chances to remake Tysons Corner into a walkable downtown. Some rail boosters say that switching the design to a tunnel at this late date would kill chances for federal funding of the whole project.

Foust, who defeated an incumbent supervisor last fall on a platform that included demanding a tunnel configuration for Dulles rail, was the most candid of the speakers in acknowledging the challenge.

"How we're going to change that -- that's where Scott has to come up with a plan," Foust said, pointing to Scott Monett, who heads the group of tunnel supporters.

Several tunnel boosters in the room said they would rather see no rail at all than an elevated track through Tysons.

"It will be so unsightly and noisy; it will be such a distraction visually," said Nancy McLeod, a longtime resident of the McLean Hunt neighborhood near Tysons.

All the politicians in the room were unwavering in their support of the ultimate goal of the $5 billion project, extending Metrorail to the airport. Byrne said she helped secure some of the original funding for rail to Dulles when she served in Congress in the early 1990s. And Petersen said it is time to move past the question of whether rail should be built and to "zero in" on securing a tunnel.

After nearly killing the project this year, Federal Transit Administration officials have allowed the 23-mile Metrorail extension to proceed to final design, the last regulatory hurdle before it receives all its federal funding.

Virginia officials are counting on $900 million in federal funds to help pay for the project's first phase, which would extend rail from Falls Church to Wiehle Avenue in Reston. The project's second phase would take the line to the airport and beyond in Loudoun County. The rest of the cost is to be covered with Dulles Toll Road receipts and two special taxing districts, in Tysons and Reston.

Just how tunnel supporters would get the design changed from an elevated track to a tunnel in Tysons is unclear. Federal regulators are considering the aerial design only, meaning that if the design was altered to incorporate a tunnel, the approval process would have to start again.