I have obtained a copy of Dragados' bid to build the Tysons portion of the tunnel. My sources were entirely correct in their description of the bid: it is a fixed-bid and is $200 million less and 12 months faster than the elevated rail by Bechtel. Part of the bid text:[W]e recently implemented a tunnel of this type in Spain that is similar in size and ground geology to the one proposed for Tysons... Our company Dragados has extensive tunnel boring experience around the world. We are expanding our business and operations here in the U.S. after recently winning a major, fixed-price transit tunnel contract in New York City... we plan to team with one or more local Washington D.C. area contractors to implement the work."Governor Kaine cannot ignore this! He can't just throw away $200 million in taxpayer dollars! That doesn't even count the $209 million saved in Metro operating and maintenance costs (according to a cost analysis I obtained, which was done by a coalition of independent engineering firms) or the millions saved in the absence of severe business and traffic disruption.
[UPDATE: Very big news from the Washington Post on the Tysons Metro project. According to the article, "Virginia has a window of about 15 months in which it could add a tunnel beneath Tysons Corner to its plans for a Metrorail extension to Dulles International Airport and still qualify for crucial federal funding." Federal Transit Administrator James S. Simpson says that "This is a local decision...If the governor wishes to reexamine it, he's free to do that." Awesome, now there's absolutely no reason not to do the tunnel, unless we're all totally missing something here.]
IF this company is willing to do FFP at a lesser cost than the tunnel, and IF the west group is willing to kick in the potential loss of federal funding...that sounds like a great deal to me.
A simple amendment could exempt the Tunnel project from the arbitrary regulatory rule that's hampering Governor Kaine. And, of course, the Tyson area's congressmen have made no such efforts!
It's time to pound the you-know-what out of Frank Wolf and Tom Davis on this one.
Frank Wolf
Email him here
Herndon Office
13873 Park Center Rd Ste.130
Herndon, VA 20171
(703) 709-5800 or
(800) 945-9653 in state
(703) 709-5802 fax
Winchester Office
110 N. Cameron St.
Winchester, VA 22601
(540) 667-0990 or
(800) 850-3463 in state
(540) 678-0402 fax
Washington Office
241 Cannon Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5136
(202) 225-0437 fax
Tom Davis
Email him here
Washington D.C. Office:
U.S. House of Representatives
2348 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-4611
Phone: (202) 225-1492
Fax: (202) 225-3071
Constituent Service Offices:
Annandale District Office
4115 Annandale Road, Suite 103
Annandale, VA 22003
Phone: (703) 916-9610
Fax: (703) 916-9617
Prince William District Office
13546 Minnieville Road
Woodbridge, VA 22192
Phone: (703) 590-4599
Fax: (703) 590-4740
By Alec MacGillis
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 6, 2007; 3:44 PM
Federal transit officials said today that Virginia has a window of about 15 months in which it could add a tunnel beneath Tysons Corner to its plans for a Metrorail extension to Dulles International Airport and still qualify for crucial federal funding.
Their statements, which were made at a Federal Transit Administration news conference, appeared to undermine one of the main arguments against switching from a mostly elevated route to a below-ground one for Tysons.
Halliburton does own Kellogg, Brown and Root, another storied engineering company. KBR's connections go back to Texas politics in the 40's when it was Brown and Root. They were tight with LBJ.
Of course, all of these outfits are insiders. George Shultz and Caspar Weinberger were top execs at Bechtel.
We simply have to have a tunnel through Tysons. Otherwise, some careers of politicians have to end. We should use this against Wolf and Davis in 2008. This is a huge issue and a concrete way in which they are letting down their constituents in favor of some backroom dealing.
This is truly a time to ask "Which side are you on, boys."
The fat cats or your constituents' side?
This article should raise RED flags:
A year-long investigation of the "Big Dig," or Boston Central Artery project, by the Globe published in February 2003, showed that $1.1 billion or two-thirds of the cost-overruns alone are tied to the mistakes of Bechtel ...
"Yet, even as Bechtel's errors helped drive up the Big Dig's cost, the company never paid for any of its mistakes. Instead, it profited," wrote the newspaper. "To date, Bechtel has received more than $264 million beyond what its original contracts called for, in part because Bechtel received additional money to fix its errors, records show."
"These allegations do a serious disservice to those trying to understand the truth about the largest, most complex urban transportation project in U.S. history," was the angry Bechtel's response in a detailed rebuttal.
Yet Bechtel fails to explain how the original price tag of $2.5 billion spiraled upwards every, until in 2003 it had hit a whopping $14.6 billion or $1.8 billion a mile, making it the world's most expensive highway.
full article:
and the damning Boston Globe investigation:
Federal transit officials said yesterday that Virginia has until spring 2008 to submit its plans for a Metrorail extension to Dulles International Airport
They said the state would have until May 2008 -- 15 months from now -- to submit its final plans and pricing for the project and still qualify for the current funding cycle, assuming the submission is acceptable.The officials also said that adding a tunnel into the project would result in delays of six to 18 months. That means if the state changed its plans now, it could conceivably meet the deadline.
"This is a local decision. We're neutral," said Federal Transit Administrator James S. Simpson. "If the governor wishes to reexamine it, he's free to do that."