Large columns of concrete rising from the ground surrounded by cranes, bright orange construction signs, and temporary road dividers create driving obstructions that have become synonymous with the Tysons Corner area near Chain Bridge road.
They are not merely obstacles put in place to make it difficult to get to the mall, but rather, they are a portion of the support system for the elevated Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project (DCM) going over the Capital Beltway, which has been under construction since 2009.
A new report released last week by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Transportation (DOT) lists recommended actions for the Federal Transit Authority (FTA) to improve its oversight of the Washington Metropolitan Airports Authority (WMAA) DCM project’s first phase.
“[MWAA] is independent of the Federal Government and not subject to Federal or State laws that govern ethics, transparency, access to information, procurement, and other areas,” said Calvin Scovel, DOT inspector general, in a letter to Congressmen Frank Wolff and Tom Latham in May. “As such, MWAA’s governance depends on the strength of its internal codes, policies, and processes, and its adherence to them.
“However, our observations to date indicate that weaknesses in MWAA’s policies and procedures related to financial disclosures, travel, and transparency have limited the Board’s accountability to the public, Congress, and stakeholders.”
The OIG report states that the FTA did not take adequate and timely action to address specific issues of concern raised regarding the structural safety of foundations used in the project after the issues were brought to the attention of the FTA in 2009.
In addition, the report states that the FTA did not address risks that would prevent the project from being completed on schedule, including the late delivery of 64 railcars, failing to resolve disagreements on the project, and it had not taken sufficient action to mitigate the cost risks or address the budget overruns on the project.
The FTA is “committed to the safety of the Dulles Corridor Metrorail project and has taken extra steps to verify that the agency’s oversight process is effective,” said Brian Farber, the FTA’s associate administrator for Communications and Congressional Affairs, in a written statement. “FTA will continue to enforce rigorous, timely oversight of this complex and nationally significant project every step of the way, to assure the public that the new rail service will be safe and reliable for generations to come.”
According to the OIG report, the DCM project management oversight contactor reported that the first phase of the project was over budget by $115 million in 2011, and that it was likely to exceed the remaining $87 million allocated for unanticipated costs.
The report says that at the time of the draft report, February 2012, the FTA had not accepted a plan to address the risks. However, the report acknowledges that after the issuance of the draft report, the FTA identified $71 million in cost savings on the project, and it did take action to assure that MWAA has sufficient funding available to supplement the existing contingency funds.
The Dulles rail project reuses 30-year-old pier foundations as posts of support for the rail bridge.
The OIG states that as of February 2012, the FTA had not addressed safety issues brought to their attention back in March 2011, namely, the foundation’s ability meet the design code requirement to resist lateral loads, horizontal forces that push from the side, and the foundation’s ability to withstand the potential effects of corrosion from stray electrical currents.
According to FTA guidelines, the foundation must meet a 50-year service life requirement. Last month, the FTA reported that it had taken action to resolve the issues.
MWAA is responsible for constructing the DCM Silver Line project, a 23-mile expansion of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s (WMATA) Orange Line that is due to connect the Dulles International Airport to downtown Washington. The FTA is responsible for oversight of its $900 million contribution to the first phase of the project—a grant from the FTA’s New Starts program that includes $77.3 million dollars from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
After MWAA completes certain stages of the project, it plans to hand over to the project to the WMATA to become part of the existing metrorail service.
The first phase of the metrorail extension project consists of extending the rail system from East Falls Church to Wiehle Avenue on the Eastern edge of Reston. According to MWAA, it originally planned on the first phase of the project costing $2.6 million. However, the project has gone over its allotted budget.
The project is scheduled to be completed in 2013. Plans include four stations in Tysons Corner. According to MWAA, funding for the first phase of the project was planned to come from revenues generated by the Dulles Toll Road, commercial property taxes, and the federal government.
The Dulles Corridor Steering Committee, comprised of representatives from MWAA, Fairfax County, Va., and Loudoun County, Va., reached an agreement in January 2002 to allocate 25 percent of the capital costs to be funded locally, with 16 percent from Fairfax county, 5 percent from Loudoun County, 4 percent from MWAA. Another 25 percent of the costs were to be covered by state funds and the remaining 50 percent by federal funds.
As of March 2012, the first phase of the project was 66 percent complete, according to the project’s website.
The current cost estimate for the second phase is approximately $3.83 billion, which includes a tunnel and an underground station at Dulles Airport, according to a press release issued by MWAA. The second phase is planned to run from Wiehle Avenue to Ashburn in East Loudoun County.
In March of this year, the DOT announced that it would begin an audit of the second phase of project at the request of Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) and Rep. Tom Latham (R-Iowa), members of the House Appropriations Committee.
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