Tunnel tunnelledddd

Yesterday Virginia Governor Tim Kaine (D) met with the Federal Transit Administration about the Dulles Metrorail Project (the Silver line) that would extend out to the airport.

The troubled project had recently taken a 'turn down another road' when a panel formed by the American Society of Civil Engineers recommended a deep, single-bore tunnel through the Tyson's Corner area of the project - easing traffic woes associated with contruction, and the wide, pedestrian-unfriendly median crossings of VA 7 along Tyson's Corner.

Problems?
->A total of $110 million dollars (at least) had already been spent just engineering the above-ground, non-tunneling option around Tyson's Corner

->Umm...the tunneling was going to cost a lot more than the above-ground option and the whole project could tank should wacky soil be found at that depth (no bores have been done that deep)

->FTA evaluates things based on cost-benefit....the elevated cost would make the C/B skyrocket above any sort of normal FTA project. Why do we care about FTA? They dole out the federal bucks to help through their New Starts program.

Result
-->Gov. Kaine decided to nogo the tunnel after meeting with FTA. Nonetheless, lots of money and time has been wasted with the indecision, especially to end up with the same result...a result that could have been predicted (based on FTA requirements) before the whole project was put in limbo.

Opinion
Would I like a tunnel? Sure - there are numerous benefits to tunnelling through Tyson's Corner...plus who would get off at Tyson's if they actually saw what it looked like before disembarking? Then again...I would rather that the thing get built at all, and the way the FTA is working so tight with their money, it is probably best economically to move forward with the above-ground option. My solution would be to allocate 5% more of the highways budget to transit new starts projects, that would solve tons-o-woes, ay?


Read about it in the Washington Post