Next Stop, Dulles Airport

Virginia transportation officials announced an agreement yesterday with a private contractor to begin construction of Metro’s expansion to Dulles International Airport next spring, delivering a possibly fatal blow to a group of Northern Virginia residents and businesses who had sought to change the plan so that the elevated segment through Tysons Corner would run underground.

The deal, struck by the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation and Dulles Transit Partners, a construction consortium headed by Bechtel Inc., concluded weeks of contentious closed-door negotiations to contain the cost of the project so that it would qualify for federal money. Talks stalled so seriously at one point that state officials set an April 5 deadline.

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