Still cannot understand *how* MWAA can raise tolls this fast this quickly without adding tolls to the Dulles Access road, which is what *should* be getting tolled to pay for a larger share of the fee, as well as adding additional airport usage fees to rental cars and a special Metro station fee for accessing the Dulles station once Silver line goes in to Dulles.

Dear Mr. Michael A. Curto and all other members of the MWAA board:

You all deserve to removed from office after voting again to increase tolls on the Dulles Toll Road to fund the silver line. You've heard from the public on every occasion that this was not acceptable, yet you continue to ignore it. Why should toll road commuters pay for a transit option most can't even use to get where they need to go? Why do you ignore all the traffic studies that show how much extra traffic will be pushed to Route 7 and the Georgetown Pike?

MWAA is a total embarrassment. One USDOT IG investigation complete, another (Dulles Rail-specific) in progress, and an FBI investigation in-progress too... Yet they continue to raise tolls on commuters for a project few of them will use.

Virginia must take or toll road back from MWAA and put an end to this corruption and abuse. sign the petition at www.noTOLLincrease.org. There are better ways to solve our transportation problems!

Patrick forrest was right. Ge warned us about the increases and senator howell called hum irresponsible at the time. She should publicly apologize to Mr. Forrest and the voters.

Screw it. I'm just going to start backtracking on the Access Highway. I need to gas up the vehicle anyway, so I'll just hit the gas station twice a day.

i am with convict on this one. And since we just floated another 200million in bonds for county stuff, why didn't we just fund another 200million in bonds for this then the whole county could pay for it. After this year then they will say we have a budget shortfall to make up after more bonds.

Well of course MWAA approved the toll increase - and this is only the beginning of a half-century nightmare. People need to understand that the plan is to increase these tolls for thirty-five years or more. The general plan for the past year has been that they will rise to about $6.75 in 2012 dollars, and continue to increase in future dollars to keep up with inflation.

The plan is this:
(prices are for 2-axle vehicles such as typical cars)
(Present 2012) $2.25
January 2013: $2.75
January 2014: $3.50
January 2015: $4.50

After January 2015, there is some dispute. The April, 2012 CDM Smith plan said it would increase to $6.75 in January 2018, and increase $2 every 5 years, to $18.75 in 2048. Jack Potter of MWAA says it can't be predicted that far forward.

The CDM Smith report showed a jump to $4.50 in January 2013. Reportedly, the $150 million taxpayer money from Virginia is being used to pay down the tolls a bit until 2015, resulting in the 2013 and 2014 numbers shown above.

My prediction is that most of the tolls will be paid down with taxpayer money. After tens of thousands of drivers avoid the Toll Road because of the toll hikes, and our local roads are jammed as a result, and people really, really scream as a result, it will finally be done.

Why didnt the Virginia Attorney General propose helping to pay for this instead of whining? We send 11 billion to richmond and get back 2 billion, all the while they have hundreds of millions in surplus. Infrastructure has traditionally been the role of the states, and yet nothing, a tiny 150 million? They offered 80 million to a SINGLE residential developer in loudoun county as a huge shady handshake.

Where is the outrage about that Bob?

NOVA fuels this state and the state spites this region for their political retribution in order to disperse our money to Big Coal interests and freight truck interests

Navid,

The Commonwealth of Virginia has contributed $3.52 Billion to the overall project by virtue of transferring control of the Dulles Toll Road Asset to MWAA. That $3.52 figure comes from a 2008 estimate made by the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation. Bob is right that the tolls will, and indeed must, go up if the present funding structure is kept. Once the bonds are issued by MWAA to borrow the money to pay for Phase 2, essentially MWAA will lose control over the toll road rates and the bondholders will decide what to charge. At least that is how it will work on a practical level. MWAA will still hold public hearings on toll road rate increases but its hands will be tied.

This project was not wanted by FTA or WMATA, but it was tricked through, and the trick involved breaking it in two. There was only federal money for the first half, and the precarious funding situation was known for years. Yes, it was known for years that there would be no federal money, and not much more state money, for Phase II.

But Dulles Rail supporters kept pushing and playing, and they tricked Phase II through too. But now they are trying to change the agreements on the funding that they thought were just fine before now. Oh, this little rail line was going to make money spurt out of buildings and paychecks all over Loudoun County, and all over Fairfax County too. So nobody cared that the construction price was two times what it should be. Nobody paid any attention to the double price of the Rt 28 Metro station, or to the double price of the Phase II parking garages, or the double overall inflation-adjusted per-mile cost.

Now we find out that MWAA was routinely paying as much as 3.3 times what they should have been paying for some of their contracts. Did the Dulles Rail estimators base their price estimates on contract costs like that? We don't know, because none of our so-called 'leaders' will call them out to explain their oddly high estimates. Instead, our so-called 'leaders' just keep saying over and over and over, like a mantra, that they are 'looking for ways to reduce the tolls.' Somehow their words just don't ring true any more, do they.

What did you all expect??? This was obvious all along and now Reston is surprised! I feel sorry for all of you naive people who thought a multi-billion dollar rail project like this wouldn't affect your toll costs.

Mr. Holmquist you are one sad soul. I am not Mr. Forrest and if you would like to call me directly please do at 202-255-1480. It was very clear during the campaign that Mr. Forrest broought up this issue up time and time again. And that senator howell always called him irresponsible and that he was making up all of this. At the very least accept the facts. Excuse my typing and spelling errors but I am a simple latino writing from a blackberry. I am sure you disapprove as well to have a latino making a comment here.

For those at MWAA and their friends being awarded contracts, this is all one big cookie jar. They answer to nobody, take what they can without being penalized (it has gotten so back they may have actually overstepped this boundary), and have a vested interest to see this all continue year-in-year out. The citizens pay while they eat and drink at The Palm. The same scene is being repeated all around the country. I submit to you...this cannot continue. Anyone believe that these people really represent them? Then call me for shares in the renovated Brooklyn Bridge, planned for 2177.

I agree. We need to gold all these politicians accountable. I'm so tired of politicians who say anything during a campaign amnd then forget about us when elected.

A pattern of negligence and misconduct in Dulles Rail planning, construction and operations extends beyond MWAA. Various failures and "bending the rules" by staff and officials also occurred at WMATA, US Dept. of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration, Virginia Dept. of Rail and Public Transportation, Fairfax County Dept. of Transportation, various Virginia General Assembly and US Congress members and Fairfax and Loudoun County supervisors. We are lucky that engineers, contractors and subcontractors have helped build Phase 1 on time and close to the vastly inflated budget without serious injury.

Delegate Plum and Senator Howell asked Governor McDonnell in 2011 for more state funding but have never worked to obtain a financially sound project.

The 2002 WMATA computer travel demand model used to forecast Dulles Rail passenger ridership was not based on reasonable assumptions of modal share or other verifiable evidence. In April 2012, a representative of Desman, the parking garage consultant to Loudoun County, told me that they asked WMATA to allow use of the 2002 model to assist in estimating parking space demand. They were told by WMATA that the model had been destroyed or discarded and was not available. Rick Stevens, then at WMATA, was responsible for the model. He later worked for Fairfax County on transit planning until 2010. The Wiehle Avenue traffic disaster will be his legacy.

It is time for Silver Line riders to pay most capital and operating costs.

My bottom line is this, it simply is not fair to suck this cost from me because I have to use the toll road. Like too many things these days we need to go back to doing things that are based on fairness, not based on expediency, convenience. I feel so helpless as a taxpayer and resident of Reston, we have no influence, they are ruining our neighborhood, driving up our Cost-of-living and the only people that benefit are the developers, construction companies, and politicians.

Those who have read my prior posts may recall my mention of the Potomac Yard Metrorail station cost increases a couple of months ago.

The Washington Business Journal reports this week that estimated costs for one station development scenario at Potomac Yards have now reached $538 million.
http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/breaking_ground/2012/11/high-end-cost-for-potomac-yard-metro.html?page=all

Cassidy Turley reported in August 2012 that office market vacancy rates in Alexandria and Arlington County may reach 30% during the next two years due to relocations of contractors and federal workers under BRAC.

Reverse the toll increases! Take the TollRoad away from MWAA, for their profligacy, corruption and ineptitude! Punish any politician at the ballot box who allows this outrageous money grab from toll road users for the Silver Line! We are not sheep to be shorn.

Despite its shortcomings, corruption, and waste, the problem is not MWAA, but rather the decision that the silver line should not be financed the same way the rest of the system was financed - by the entire metro region, the states of Maryland and Virginia, and the federal government. The entire region will benefit from the silver line and the entire region should pay for it - not just those of us who happen to live near it.

On Nov. 6 Fairfax County voters voted in favor of a bond issue which will directly benefit one small neighborhood, presumably because it was the fair thing to do. It is only fair that the metro region pay for the silver line with assistance from the states and federal government which will benefit from it.

The history of incompetence/corruption in government contracting means that the MWAA handling of the silver line is no surprise. What is surprising is that the nation reelected The Won, a man who has never run anything but his mouth. I suppose everybody is confident that he will wave his magic wand and things like the MWAA mess will all turn out wonderfully.

Fairfax and Loudoun County taxpayers should know that in 2001 WMATA Compact members at the completion of the initial 103 mile system agreed that they would not fund extensions of the Metrorail system. In other words, suckers from outside the Capital Beltway can pay for rail extensions which we "smart growth" residents from Inside the Beltway can use to get to Dulles Airport and Tysons Corner.

Wait until DC and Arlington County ask Fairfax and Loudoun County taxpayers to help pay for their $10 to $15 billion plans for a second Potomac River tunnel between Rosslyn and Union Station. Then the horse manure will fly faster than you can say "smart growth."

Another article in Friday's Examiner about MWAA nepotism.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/dulles-rail-board-ignored-warnings-of-nepotism/article/2513625

Liz Essley reports that DC representative to Congress, Eleanor Holmes Norton has introduced a bill designed to force MWAA to use federal contracting rules.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/norton-introduces-bill-to-clean-up-airports-dulles-rail-contracts/article/2513628

See also the latest Toll Road News article about Dulles Toll Road toll increases.

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/6276

I stopped using the toll road a couple of years ago. Now I drive the local streets ( Hunters MIll Road, etc) almost exclusively if I want to go east to the Tysons area or the beltway. Traffic on such local roads has perceptibly increased, since others are clearly doing the same as I am. I will not drive the toll road except in critical situations, and never at rush hour, just on the general principle that it already costs too much and MWAA will not get any more of my money.

I know that many have dirty hands in this but we need to stop pointing fingers and find a solution. MD and DC are not going to chip in, Fed Govt already paid their share. Tell me where/who/what/how we will find the money to pay for all of this? When I went to the MWAA Open Hearing at SLHS, I had a good conversation with one of their representatives who clearly explained that in order for us to have Rail NOW (the key word in all of this is "NOW) , toll increases was the only viable solution with obtaining bonds down the road.

The first thing we need to do is fight the excessive cost of this project, then we need to make the best arrangements to limit the pain of payment. Unfortunately, our leaders stand around whistling and looking the other way, and when we ask them about this, all they say is the same thing they always say: that they are "looking for ways to lower the tolls." And then they stop, and smile, as though their job is done.

No investigation of the excessive contract prices is taking place, despite the stunning US DOT Inspector General report released November 1, 2012, showing widespread MWAA contract misconduct - including not only the use of, but the actual funneling of work to a contractor that was charging beween 1.3 and 3.3 times as much as other contractors charge for the same work. I have shown evidence of a double price for this rail project, the IG report adds evidence of contract cost excesses at MWAA, but our leaders are accepting an apparently excessive - actually massively excessive - price, and all people are saying is "Oh no, where can we borrow money to PAY these excessive prices?" Instead, people need to say "How can we push back against these massively excessive prices, so that we won't have to overpay for this project?" When will people wake up, and start demanding this?

Rising tolls will push cars off the toll road and onto local roads, causing massive traffic jams. Then, taxpayers will be paying down the tolls - so they should force down the price NOW.

I hope some of those tolls will go to pay for the increased maintenance on Rt. 7, cause they're gonna need it.

Today's Congressional Hearing about MWAA Board and Officer misconduct began at 9AM this morning, and it ended at 11:19 AM. It was very interesting, and it may be made available from the Congressional website for on-demand viewing.

Bob, your point to stop excessive contract prices is well stated and logical. Its too late to stop Phase 1, how do we stop Phase 2 and ask the powers that be to find alternative funding sources and not use tolls? The people who created this mess were all re-elected. If they thought they were in danger of being voted out, they wouldnt be "whistling and looking the other way" ...

Well KB, I haven't figured out how to fix the mess that these crooks made for us, but I do have a few thoughts. How about this:

Get MWAA out of the process, re-estimate Phase II, explore legal recovery of the overcharges for Phase I, reject overpriced bids, consider a rail lottery, call it "Making Tracks" - change the law if need be to do that - and don't raise the tolls. The Tifia and other loans will be repaid from tax money, so face it and do that now. The alternative is total disaster - jammed traffic and economic failure as business leaves the area because of usurious tolls and stupid government mismanagement. Also - revisit the business tax caps. The Chambers of Commerce didn't care about the price of this job, so let businesses pay 25% of it like they were supposed to.

It's all going to hell in a handbasket. The political proces has failed to give us leadership that can deal with the MWAA and the mess they have created. I look forward to the day when I leave NoVa behind, just as I am sure that many businsses will do as well when the true magnitude of our failure to adequately deal with transporation and land use issues befalls NoVa.

Java Master...This is an issue which is gripping municipalities all over the country. We really have reached the day of reckoning, and no longer have the financial capacity to gloss over these mistakes. Unfortunately, people have yet to realize this, and still want the candy without paying for it.

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