Fairfax County Grapples With Huge Silver Line Costs, Martin DiCaro, WAMU 88.5, August 28, 2013

Fairfax County transportation officials say they are confident the necessary funds will be secured to pay for three facilities—two parking garages and a rail station—that are part of Phase II of the Silver Line Metrorail project to Dulles International Airport, sparing county taxpayers an additional burden as the $6 billion commuter rail extension is constructed.

As part of an agreement with then U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA), Fairfax and Loudoun counties pledged to fund the construction of parking and station facilities “outside the project,” a move designed to placate LaHood’s wish to reduce the overall cost of the Silver Line, which is being largely financed with toll revenues from the Dulles Toll Road.

In an interview with WAMU 88.5, Fairfax County Transportation Director Tom Biesiadny said planners are pursuing several avenues to fulfill the county’s commitment to building parking garages at the future Herndon-Monroe and Rt. 28 stations and the station stop at Rt. 28/Innovation Center, all of which will cost nearly a quarter of a billion dollars.

“Obviously we want to keep the total cost of the project for all of the funding partners as reasonable as possible. One of the beneficiaries of reducing the cost of the project obviously is the toll road users. Other beneficiaries are the taxpayers,” Biesiadny said. . . .

The enormous sum of $235 million Fairfax County estimates it will need to build the two parking garages and rail station currently is factored into the Silver Line’s overall budget. Those costs will remain “inside the project,” to be shared by all the funding partners, unless the county finds money to build them on its own.  . . .

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