The Silver Line will be later getting to Ashburn and Dulles Ashburn that had been predicted.
Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority officials announced in April that the second phase of the rail project from the terminus of Phase 1 at the Wiehle Avenue station on the eastern edge of Reston through Herndon, Dulles Airport and west to Ashburn in eastern Loudoun will not be completed until 2019.
The project is behind schedule for several reasons, including more than 150 design changes from the contractor Capital Rail Constructors.
One of the biggest impacts will come from the authority’s decision to build Phase 2 in compliance with the latest regulations to clean up and preserve the Chesapeake Bay. The project will now build storm water management facilities that not only capture and hold storm water, it will capture and hold and create wetlands where plants will clean the storm water runoff before it is allowed to flow back into tributaries.
“It is the right thing to do for the environment.” said project director Charles Stark.
In addition, many design changes to Phase 2 had to be made because of the multiple modifications that were made to improve safety and reliability during the final months of Phase 1 construction.
Officials said this impacted schedule. The costs of these changes are anticipated to be covered by the Phase 2 contingency budget of $550 million.
Construction of the Silver Line is one of the largest public transportation construction projects in the nation. It is managed by the Airports Authority and is being built in partnership with Loudoun and Fairfax counties, and the Commonwealth of Virginia with some financial assistance from the federal government. It will be transferred to the Metropolitan Washington Area Transit Authority to operate after completion.
