Tolls on the Dulles Toll Road could double next year, and triple by 2018, according to new forecasts released by the airports authority in charge of the toll road.
Even if the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority receives additional funding from Virginia and the federal government, the tolls on that road would still double by 2015, forecasters said.
The round-trip toll on the Dulles Toll Road is $4.50, but would double to $9 in 2013, triple to $13.50 in 2018 and jump as high as $33.50 by 2043, the most current projections show.
The tolls are rising to help pay the $2.8 billion cost of the second phase of the Dulles Metro rail line.
Authority CEO Jack Potter said tolls may not rise as quickly as the projections show if Virginia contributes $150 million toward the project. Gov. Bob McDonnell promised the funding, but Virginia lawmakers have threatened to withhold the money unless the authority agrees to change the way it operates. Even if the state pays, the tolls would still double by 2015, projections show.
The authority will decide in September how much to raise the tolls, though members were already wary of the projected increases Wednesday.
“What happens to the working guy?” board member H.R. Crawford asked. “We’re talking $20 a week. That’s a lot of money.”
The board emphasized how important it was that Virginia kick in $150 million, or more — one bill in the General Assembly right now would increase project funding to $500 million.
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Sharon Bulova said she expected the state to fund the rail project, though she too questioned how high tolls would have to go.
“The state funding will really make a difference,” she said. “We’re not OK with [these projections], and we’ll continue to look for ways to reduce the tolls.”
Among the complaints Virginia lawmakers had with the authority was a labor agreement that encouraged contractors to use union labor on the rail project. Virginia is a right-to-work state, and lawmakers said the union provision violates state law. The airports authority on Wednesday voted to do away with a mandatory labor agreement, but said it would give an advantage to any bidding firm that voluntarily abides by the union-friendly agreement.
In another development likely to rankle officials in Virginia, the airports authority was told that the first phase of the Dulles Metro project, which extends from East Falls Church to Reston, may go $150 million over budget. Fairfax and Loudoun counties would have to pay part of that overrun.
