Tim Kaine is going to endorse Barack Obama. Good for him. Given Virginia's rather lowly status in the presidential nominating process, Kaine could easily have afforded to just sit back and wait and see what happens, i.e., play it safe.
We just love the way this got reported in the Post today: "The sources [who leaked Kaine's decision ahead of a formal announcement] spoke on condition of anonymity because they do not want to preempt the formal announcement." If that were so, they would've simply kept their mouths shut.
[Ever since the Post (and its sister publication Newsweek) adopted a policy of stating a reason why a source wishes to stay anonymous, it has been filled with these silly--and obviously phony--rationalizations. Our favorite are the sources who spill the beans on national security matters and then say they didn't want to be quoted about sensitive national security matters. Hey, if they're that sensitive, you shouldn't be talking to reporters about them!]
We digress. Speaking of Tim Kaine, Representative Tom Davis has pulled the rug out from under Kaine on the issue of whether Metrorail's Orange Line extension through Tyson's Corner to Dulles Airport should be underground.
Davis, who wrote to Kaine last year, along with Rep. Frank Wolf, urging Kaine to support an above-ground rail line through Tysons lest the whole project be delayed, has now flip-flopped (despite saying "I don't think that's a flip-flop") and advocates the tunnel approach.
Normally, we kind of like Davis, a pretty moderate Republican, but on this one we have to wonder what's up. Is it, as the Post suggests today, that Davis's wife, Jeannemarie Devolites Davis, a Republican State Senator from Fairfax County, is feeling the heat on the project? Could be.
Putting in a tunnel will raise the cost of the project significantly--by as much as a billion bucks. (Ignore the tunnel proponents who tell you otherwise--their numbers are way-cooked.) And it will take longer to complete.
We're not necessarily saying a tunnel is a bad idea--it is certainly true that putting the new line underneath Tyson's would give the region a chance at making itself over in an attractive way that may be greatly appreciated in 20 years.
However, it is important for members of Congress to be straight with Virginia officials--especially Kaine--about the significance of changing to a tunnel plan. We're sure that, all things being equal, Kaine would be delighted to support a tunnel. But we doubt that all things are equal on this one, and having Davis play politics only muddies an already murky picture.
Meanwhile, we wonder when someone's going to face the other big issue/problem with the Orange Line extension: the Rosslyn tunnel chokepoint. Extending the Orange Line to Dulles is a wonderful idea and will be great for everyone in the region. The only problem is that the vast expansion of ridership on the already crowded Orange Line will never work unless planners figure out a way--sooner or later--to add a Potomac River crossing to the Metro network. Right now, Orange and Blue Line trains go through the single tunnel between the Rosslyn (Virginia) and Foggy Bottom (D.C.) stations about as often as they can during rush hours. Switching Blue Line trains to the above water crossing parallel to the 14th Street Bridge--part of Metro's plan--will help for awhile, but in the long term there is going to be a need for another tunnel (or bridge) to service the number of Orange Line trains that will be needed to handle traffic all the way out to Dulles.
Davis probably expects he'll be retired before his constituents figure that one out.
2 comments:
The statement that the tunnel would cost one billion dollars more than the aerial line through Tysons Corner is flat wrong. The recently completed engineering drawings done for the TysonsTunnel organization, which were reviewed by various tunnel engineeers including the chairman of Governor Kaine's panel to look at the tunnel approach last summer, were used to develop a cost estimate for the tunnel alternative. The result was a price about the same or slightly less than the estimate developed by Bechtel a year ago for the aerial approach. Subsequently, Dregados, a Spanish firm that has built simlar tunnels in various parts of the world, submitted a letter to Governor Kaine indicating that after reviewing the engineering documents they would build the tunnel through Tysons for $823 million, which is over $200 million less than was estimated by the engineers who prepared the documents. They also stated that they could complete it 6 to 12 months sooner than estimated by Bechtel for the aerial approach. All in all the tunnel would be cheaper, faster and certainly easier.
Also, Dragados' bid, a copy of which can be found here, is a fixed-price bid. This means that if it costs more than $823 million, Dragados will pay for it. Obviously Dragados is confident that it won't.
The businesses of Tysons are also confident it won't cost more to do a tunnel. They have offered to pay the difference between a tunnel and elevated rail if it a tunnel is more expensive.
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