TysonsTunnel.org Rips VDOT

By: Lowell
Published On: 9/10/2007 8:00:49 AM

Scott Monett, President of TysonsTunnel.org, has a letter in today's Washington Post that points the finger for the Metro to Dulles project's imminent demise right at VDOT.  According to Monett:

As the overpriced, poorly negotiated and mismanaged Dulles Metrorail project teeters toward possible failure from its own ungainly weight, a witch hunt for responsible parties has begun.

[...]

No party is more culpable than the Virginia Department of Transportation.

Under that agency's mismanagement, the Metrorail project missed numerous deadlines -- a fact that resonates loudly in two federal reports. These delays are the single greatest contributor to the project's billion-dollar cost increases. And, most tellingly, many of the missed deadlines came before Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) selected an aerial railway and before there was an organized pro-tunnel campaign.

As I asked several weeks ago, after the emergency summit on Metro to Dulles with Gov. Kaine, Rep. Davis, Rep. Moran and Rep. Wolf, "who will step up and lead" before the whole thing goes down the drain?  Who will say, "enough's enough," open this thing up to competitive bidding, reverse course and do what almost everybody wants - build a tunnel in Tysons?  Who will tell Bechtel to take their no-bid contract and absurd "aerial option" and shove it?  Or, will the "witch hunt" continue and Metro to Dulles project go down the tubes?  The people of Virginia are waiting (and waiting, and waiting)...

Comments



Blah (tx2vadem - 9/10/2007 11:08:39 PM)
This is nothing.  Your mad at this?  A bigger travesty is the HOT lane deal.  But let's sell Virginia's assets at fire sale prices, a tunnel to Tysons paid for and owned by the public is more important.

Who is going to take leadership?  Is Governor Kaine not the head of management of Virginia government?  Does the buck not stop with him?  VDOT may have made mistakes prior to his administration, but whose administration was that?  And whose responsibility is it now?



I'm not particularly thrilled (Lowell - 9/10/2007 11:17:37 PM)
with the no-bid Metro to Dulles fiasco OR the taxpayer-funded HOT lanes privatization.


The greater question (tx2vadem - 9/10/2007 11:26:56 PM)
Lowell, why should I vote in this election?  If Democrats are going to break my heart on numerous issues, why bother?  At least with Republicans, I know they are going to things up.  But they make no bones about it, they come right out and say they want to screw things up.  I mean they want government out of the picture so that private industry can find it in the kindness of their hearts to make up the difference. 

There is this issue.  There are the HOT Lanes.  There is the Dominion re-regulation bill.  Where are my Democratic folks in these fights?  Rolling over and playing dead.  So, I ask, why should I bother?  Why should I bother to give money?  Why should I bother to vote?  I could just fade into the abyss of disaffection and lack of participation that so many Virginians wallow in on state election day.