The first phase of the Dulles Metro Rail project could be as much as $150 million over budget and as many as 194 days behind schedule — a far cry from the “on time and on budget” mantra that officials overseeing the project have been claiming in recent months. Officials from the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority admitted for the first time Wednesday that costs for the first phase of the project may exceed the $2.8 billion budget.
Project manager Pat Nowakowski said the rail to Tysons Corner could be completed $9 million under budget or as much as $150 million over budget. But authority Chief Executive Officer Jack Potter said talk of being under budget was “optimistic.”
And contractors are reporting that they are as much as 194 days behind schedule — up from the 188-day delay reported by The Washington Examiner as recently as July. The delays mean the opening of the Silver Line, the new Metro line that runs from Falls Church through Tysons Corner and out to Washington Dulles International Airport, would be pushed back to the summer of 2014.
If the rail line goes over budget, the partners in the project, including Fairfax and Loudoun counties and Dulles Toll Road users, will be forced to pick up the tab, Nowakowski told reporters after the MWAA meeting.
Nowakowski said his team is working to “mitigate” overruns and predicted that contractors would report a far shorter delay in next month’s report.
“The forecast is within budget, but there’s some challenges we need to deal with there,” he said.
Airports authority leaders shifted the blame for the cost overruns to others. For example, Metro asked for expensive safety improvements for which it has not agreed to pay, board Chairman Charles Snelling said. And the state didn’t include the sales tax when Virginia handed the project over to MWAA in 2007, costing the project $15 million, Snelling said.
“[There are] at least $60 [million] to $70 million of things that are not slippages on our part as managers of the project,” Snelling said.
The Examiner first reported weeks ago about delays of as much as six months in the first phase of the rail project, at a time when the airports authority was insisting that the project was on schedule and on budget. At the time, there was no estimate for how much the delays might add to the project’s cost.
The authority’s denial of the delays only fueled tensions with Virginia officials, who accused the board of being unresponsive to their concerns.
Vice Chairman Tom Davis urged the authority’s staff and fellow board members to be open about the climbing costs.
“We shouldn’t be afraid to ask these questions, rather than have somebody else explain them and put them on the front page,” he said. “I don’t think you ought to be shy about letting the public know.”
