Wolf, Connaughton Warn About Impacts From Increasing Silver Line Costs, Leesburg Today, May 16, 2011

Posted on May 16, 2011

by Erika Jacobson Moore

As was expected, much of Friday's annual State of Transportation breakfast hosted by the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce focused around the future of the Dulles Rail project and the ongoing battle over the Dulles Airport station and the ever-increasing price tag of the Silver Line Metro project.

Both of the morning speakers-Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-VA-10) and Virginia Secretary of Transportation Sean Connaughton-promised the room full of business leaders, elected representatives and political candidates that they would continue to push until a positive resolution is found for Northern Virginia taxpayers and Dulles Toll Road users. Wolf in particular came out swinging against the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Board of Directors . . . .

"Something has gone awry. The system has gone down," he said, pointing out that the deciding vote on the nomination of a new CEO for MWAA was cast by someone who had not been a meeting in two years and who was voting by proxy. He noted that every agency, organization and individual who looked at Phase 2 of the project agreed that the Dulles Airport station should be above ground to save money over MWAA's preference for an underground station

"There is no reason and no excuse for their insistence this station be underground," Wolf said. . .

Connaughton questioned what impact that would have to the surrounding road network.

"If 30 percent of traffic avoids the toll road because of higher tolls, where are they going to go?" he asked, answering quickly with the obvious answer-"to the already overburdened and congested roads in Northern Virginia," which will lead to increased wear and tear on those roadways.

"Then it ends up costing the state billions of dollars to make those improvements," Connaughton said. . . .

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