First Phase 2 Rail-to-Dulles Bid Comes in Below Estimates

I didn’t get to this last week, but it’s too important to overlook… The low bid for half the work associated with Phase 2 of the Rail-to-Dulles project came in at $1,178,000,000 — seemingly way below the estimated $2.7 billion total cost for the project. The bid was submitted by Clark Construction Group.

The contract is for the largest of three design-build packages for Phase 2, representing about 50% of the work. The 11.4-mile extension of the Silver Line west of Tysons will have six Metro stations.

Clark Construction edged out Bechtel Transit Partners, which is finishing work on Phase 1. Bechtel had submitted a bid only $24 million higher. The bids clustered within a fairly narrow range. Of the five bids offered, the high was $1,378,000,000.

The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) said it would not formally award the bid until after a review to validate that the proposal properly responds to the solicitation. That review was supposed to occur Friday.

Bacon’s bottom line: This appears to be very good news. The bid implies a total Phase 2 project cost of about $2.3 billion, or roughly $400 million lower than the official estimate. Perhaps the most notable aspect of the bid is that Clark Construction is an open-shop enterprise. Had MWAA imposed a Project Labor Agreement (PLA) requirement on the job, non-union companies might have been discouraged from bidding, making the process significantly less competitive.

The other good news is that the lower bid gives MWAA some breathing room on the setting of rates on the Dulles Toll Road, revenues from which comprise the single-largest funding source for Phase 2. Assuming the other two components of the project come in under estimate as well, this savings, combined with the $300 million contribution under the General Assembly’s transportation-funding plan, suggests that the toll rates will come in way below the worst-case projections.

— JAB