The additional work involves the automated train control system, which ensures that trains move properly through the system. The delay is the latest setback for the $5.8 billion rail extension and comes as employers across the region are bringing workers back to offices, prompting fresh looks into commuting options after more than a year of working from home.
Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority spokeswoman Marcia McAllister said Tuesday it could take “several more weeks” to determine the impact on the project’s schedule, adding “it’s just not clear.”
To complete its work, the contractor building the rail line, Capital Rail Constructors (CRC), would need an additional weekend outage at the Wiehle-Reston station — the end point of the existing Silver Line. McAllister said other system analyses also will need to be completed.
“CRC completed all of our work during the recent weekend shutdown,” CRC project director Keith Couch said of a station closure during the last weekend of June. “There is additional work that needs to be coordinated with [Metro] to finish the connection. We are hopeful that if the next outage can be scheduled soon that the substantial completion date will not be significantly impacted.”
Metro officials said they were aware of the delays and were awaiting details from MWAA. The Silver Line will become part of the Metro system, but its construction is being overseen by MWAA.
Before the most recent delay, Metro had been eyeing February 2022 for a possible opening, saying it needed about five months for testing and preparations on the 11-mile extension between Reston and Loudoun County before it’s ready for customers.
MWAA did not disclose details of the possible delay publicly. Instead, they surfaced during a recent meeting of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors’ transportation committee.
Martha Elena Coello, special projects division chief for the Fairfax County Department of Transportation, told committee members June 29 that “tie-in” work to ensure the two phases of the rail line operate as a single system had been only partially completed.
“That will impact the substantial completion day of Labor Day, and the magnitude of that impact has not been determined yet,” she told the committee. “We expect to have that information within two weeks.” The delay was first reported by Reston Now.
In March, MWAA officials said they expected the second phase of the rail line to reach “substantial completion” by Labor Day, when it would be handed over to Metro.
At the time, project executive director Charles Stark said, “We feel this one is going to stick, otherwise we would not have made the announcement.” Stark, who had led the project since 2014, retired last week.
On large projects such as the Silver Line, substantial completion is a milestone that indicates the contractor and its clients have agreed construction is done.
Despite MWAA’s optimism, there were indications the Labor Day deadline might not hold.
In a monthly update published just before Stark’s March announcement, CRC said it expected to complete its work in November. In the most recent monthly update in May, the contractor said it expected substantial completion would not take place until March 2022. That schedule, however, has not been approved by MWAA.
McAllister said MWAA recently informed officials from Loudoun and Fairfax counties, as well as the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, that it might miss the Labor Day deadline.
The second phase of the Silver Line project originally was to be completed in July 2018 but has been delayed multiple times. The first came a few months after construction began, when MWAA decided it would follow new state and federal rules regarding storm water management, rather than opting to be grandfathered in under previous regulations. That decision pushed the rail line’s completion date to August 2019, a 13-month delay that added $137 million to its cost.
Other problems followed, including a whistleblower complaint that alleged a subcontractor responsible for manufacturing precast concrete panels for five of the extension’s six stations had falsified quality control reports. One person pleaded guilty in connection with the case, and the company, Universal Concrete Products, eventually settled for $1 million.
While Virginia, MWAA, and Fairfax and Loudoun counties are contributing to the project’s cost, nearly half the amount is being paid by users of the Dulles Toll Road.
The project’s first phase, which included four stops in Tysons and one in Reston, was completed six months late and more than $220 million over budget. It opened in July 2014.
The second phase will provide a rail link to Dulles Airport and bring Metro service to Loudoun County for the first time.