The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) has been the operator and builder of the Metro system for our Nation's capital, which includes 103 miles of right-of-way in Maryland, the District of Columbia and Northern Virginia. However, for the long-anticipated extension to Dulles International Airport and beyond into Loudoun County, a design-build team may be used to build the next phase of the system. The 22-mile extension would be developed in three phases-Project Development and Preliminary Engineering; design-build of the first part through Tyson's Corner to Whiele Road; and design-build from Whiele Road to Dulles International and on to Route 772 in Loudoun County. The extension will run primarily along the Dulles Access Road and the Greenway Toll Road.
The system contracting agency would be the Virginia DOT, Division of Rail and Public Transportation. It has contracted with WMATA, which will provide technical management and advisory services to the project. The private partner, a consortium including Bechtel Corporation and Washington Group, International, will participate in a negotiated procurement under Virginia's PPTA legislation. Funding for the project will come from a combination of special tax districts along the rail alignment, as well as possible use of excess toll revenues in the corridor. VDOT has contracted separately for the conceptual engineering and environmental report process.
A preliminary analysis by the private sector partners indicates that a traditional design/bid/build process for this project would take 117 months to complete, at a cost in excess of $1.3 billion. The negotiated public-private partnership is projected to work to a 67-month schedule and a cost of $886 million.[412]