Union bashing, Davis-Bacon hating Republican
politicians in Northern Virginia would rather stop construction of Silver Line
mass transit service from Washington, D.C. to Dulles International, than see it
seamlessly completed under a project labor agreement. What these folks see as a
union labor victory in the PLA is in reality something which takes away the
power of organized labor to extort concessions from contractors and material
suppliers by threatening strikes which could delay completion and drive up
overall project costs in these times of rapidly accelerating commodity price
increases.
The first phase of building Washington, D.C.’s $5.6
billion Silver Line Metro commuter tracks into Dulles International is on
schedule for completion next year, and will run from Tysons Corner to Reston,
but the next leg of trackage through Loudoun County is in jeopardy before the
all Republican Loudoun County Board. Loudoun County must vote its stretch of
track up or down by early July. If the Loudoun portion of the Silver Line
fails, the project would have to be rerouted at best and might get killed
altogether at worst.
A study from George Mason University’s Center for
Regional Analysis reports that completing the commuter line through Loudoun County
will produce 40,000 jobs to the county by 2040, and drive more than $55 billion
in potential economic activity. Nevertheless, Republican board members are
taking their cues from Virginia Governor Robert E. McDonnell, whose tepid
support for the Silver Line construction has not included more than a 5% state
contribution towards the cost of building the tracks. Roadblocks thrown up by
Republicans to phase two of this project – all pretexts for their desire to get
rid of the PLA – include opposition to partial funding through increased
highway tolls, a USDOT audit of phase one, and requested appointment of an
Inspector General to monitor Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority
administration of the construction.
Even if the project could survive a pull out by
Loudoun County, financing for construction and operation of the commuter line
would have to be renegotiated, a route redesign performed, and new right of way
acquired; and the resulting loss of time would undoubtedly drive up the
finished project budget by another $1 billion or so. Rather than looking to
Richmond for guidance on this issue, Loudoun County should be listening to its
own constituents – every major business group in the county supports Silver
Line construction as presently planned.
