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Another green light for rail
Drivers on Route 123 will soon see much more construction activity, after the Dulles Metrorail project got another key approval from the Federal Transit Authority Friday."It will be very obvious to people ... that the rail project is doing something," project spokeswoman Marcia McAllister said. All of the work will be done out of the roadway, she noted.
In an Aug. 21 letter, FTA Regional Administrator Letitia Thompson told project officials they may begin doing site preparation and pre-construction work along Route 123, where the rail line will pass through a short tunnel.
This will allow actual construction of the tunnel to get under way faster once the project gets final federal approval, McAllister said, and doing work sooner presents some cost savings.
The letter is also a "positive sign" that the project remains on track to receive final federal approval, said Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority spokeswoman Tara Hamilton. It allows the airports authority to commit about $14 million in state and authority funding to the project, which will be reimbursed once final funding is approved.
The authority is working to complete its full funding grant application to submit to the FTA later this year, Hamilton said. They hope to have final approval in early 2009, she said, at which point full construction work will begin. Then, "we will start building everything at once," McAllister said.
Work on utility relocation to make way for the rail line is also continuing. The work may soon get to a point where it requires some lane closures on Route 7, but most of the work will be done at night.
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