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VDOT Weighs Five Offers For Dulles Toll Road

Nov, 14 2005

(Virginia) -- As the deadline for contractors to submit competing proposals to the Dulles Corridor Mobility Consortium's July application to take over operation and maintenance of the Dulles Toll Road neared four additional packages were delivered to the Virginia Department of Transportation. Under the state's Public-Private Transportation Act, those proposing partnerships with the state face a 90-day period during which competitors may submit other offers. That initial group—which includes past and current owners of the Dulles Greenway, such as Autostrade Group, John Laing PLC and the Infrastructure Investment Group—had offered to pay $1 billion toward the first of two phases of the project to bring Metrorail to Dulles Airport and Loudoun. In exchange for that payment, the group would take over operation and maintenance of the Dulles Toll Road, which stretches from inside the Capital Beltway to Loudoun, where it connects to the private Dulles Greenway toll road. Under that proposal, tolls would not increase any more than currently authorized until 2010. Tolls recently increased along the road to fares ranging from 50 to 75 cents. That group submitted an updated proposal in time for the VDOT deadline, but details will not be available until later this week, after Leesburg Today's deadline. VDOT offered no details about the proposals, but some of the groups issued statements highlighting their proposals. • The Dulles Express group, consisting of Franklin L. Haney Company, Louis Berger Group, Cofiroute USA, Infrastructure Corporation of America, TransCore, Merrill Lynch and McGuireWoods Consulting, has proposed a $5.7 billion plan to take over the toll road for 50 years. $717 million would be paid toward the two phases of rail to Dulles, a schedule the group claims can be stepped up. In addition, the group proposes constructing four additional “toll express” lanes, two in each direction, where commuters would pay market-driven prices. • Virginia Mobility Associates, consisting of Urban Engineers Inc., has proposed an $800 million partnership, which includes financing costs and a 30-percent overrun contingency. The money would pay for a new lane in each direction on I-66 inside the beltway and a new lane in each direction along the Dulles Toll Road and the Dulles Connector Road. In addition, the group would convert the HOV lane in each direction to express toll lanes. The group also proposes reviving a proposal to install high-occupancy toll lanes, or HOT lanes, on Rt. 28 between the Dulles Toll Road and I-66. Information about proposals from two other groups was unavailable. Those groups are: Dulles SmartLink, consisting of Transurban, Goldman Sachs & Co., Fluor Virginia Inc. and VMS Inc; and Cintra, consisting of Cintra US Corp., Ferrovial Agroman and Hatch Mott MacDonald. The Commonwealth Transportation Board gets the final say on any proposals that are recommended for further consideration. “There's a process we go through to help them make the best decision,” said VDOT spokeswoman Tamara Neale, adding that VDOT staff is now sifting through the proposals in hand. “We're making sure we have complete proposals and all the elements are there.” Neale said VDOT would post the proposals by the end of the day Nov. 4 on its Web site, www.virginiadot.org. The link may be found by clicking on Projects and Studies, then Public-Private Projects, then Active PPTA Proposals, then Dulles Corridor Mobility Initiative. During the next month, Neale said, VDOT staff will perform a quality review and send a report to the transportation secretary for further review. The secretary may then establish an advisory panel to make recommendations about which, if any, proposals move forward for a vote by the CTB. By Dusty Smith