This post was written for The Ground Floor by Marge Fahey, director of media relations at the Urban Land Institute.
Rail to Dulles is dependent upon federal funding, which was lost earlier as controversy erupted over a tunnel in Tyson’s Corner. "We are doing everything we can to hang onto $900 million that has been made available by the Federal Transit Authority," said U.S. Congressman Jim Moran (D-Virginia).
Moran credited the Virginia congressional delegation along with Governor Tim Kaine (D). "In terms of keeping the project alive, he understands the need," he said. “Northern Virginia has the second worst traffic in the nation."
Moran made his comments at a meeting he hosted July 7 in Tyson's Corner on the future of transportation in Northern Virginia. U.S. Congressman James Oberstar (D-MN), chairman of the House Transportation Committee, told the group of approximately 250 citizens that the White House, the Secretary of Transportation and the administrator of the Federal Transit Authority, are adversaries of transit.
Oberstar said the Bush Administration is ignoring criteria in federal legislation that calls for congestion relief, energy consumption, mobility, and costs of urban sprawl in considering transportation alternatives to roads. "FTA ignored the explicit direction of law," he emphasized.
Oberstar compared the United States investment in infrastructure to that of the Chinese, who invest 9 percent of their GDP ($100 billion) annually. And he spoke about a $1.3 trillion investment by the Europeans in 30 major projects, one of which will connect the North Atlantic to the Black Sea with a 2,000 mile canal. "We need to expand transportation opportunities and alternatives. You can't achieve the objectives of growth and sustainability with the current system."
"Tyson's Corner is the epicenter of what has gone wrong: short-sighted transportation decisions and land use planning, which is operated independently of development decisions," Moran added. He pointed out that Tyson's Corner has 46 million square feet of office space, 40 million square feet of parking, and 120,000 jobs but only 18,000 housing units. "That doesn't work," he said. "We have to find a way to get a better balance. We need to be able to build affordable housing so people can live here."
There is no room for more roads, and that is "not the solution," Moran emphasized. While he admitted that, "Our preference would be a tunnel; you can't always get everything you want." He indicated that an additional $300 million would be required for a tunnel, along with another $100 million for an Environmental Impact Statement, which would add at least a year to the project. He said, however, that a tunnel would be built under the intersection of Routes 7 and 123 in McLean. Moran noted there is a plan to create an urban village along Route 7 by converting auto dealerships into a mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly community.
Congressmen Oberstar and Moran were joined by Chris Zimmerman, chair, Arlington County Board of Supervisors and METRO; and Barbara Reese, deputy secretary of transportation, Commonwealth of Virginia.
Reese met with the FTA in June and noted the project is due to Congress by January 1, 2009.
The majority of attendees at the meeting were in favor of a tunnel. What do you think? Is it worth risking $900 million in federal funding to insist on the tunnel option?
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