Three years ago this month, work started on the largest expansion of the Metrorail system in more than three decades.
The day construction kicked off on the first phase of the $6 billion Silver Line, March 12, 2009, may be an afterthought. So may March 10, 2009, the day Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood pledged $900 million in federal funding for the first phase of construction. Or April 30, 2008, when the Federal Transit Administration announced the project would be eligible for that aid.
The real impact of rail between East Falls Church and Route 772 in Loudoun County will not be felt until trains are running through Tysons Corner, Reston and Dulles International Airport. The Silver Line will link major Northern Virginia business and residential corridors with D.C. and, in fact, the world.
The payoff of that work, managed by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority and a joint venture led by Bechtel Corp., is best measured today in promise — 10, 20, 30 years down the road.
Both Fairfax County and Loudoun are wholly rethinking communities along the 23-mile Silver Line path, which generally follows the Dulles Toll Road, and partly the Dulles Greenway from Arlington to Loudoun. With rail, both counties hope to transform traditionally auto-dependent, suburban office and residential markets into walkable, mixed-use communities centered on transit.
The project “will create a second downtown for the region. This kind of urbanization would not be possible without the Silver Line,” said Fairfax Board Chairman Sharon Bulova.
Upward of 50 million square feet of new development is planned for the Silver Line corridor, most in Tysons, Reston and Ashburn surrounding 11 planned Metrorail stations.
In Tysons, Macerich has started work on the first phase of its 1.3 million-square-foot, mixed-use project adjacent to Tysons Corner Center. Cityline Partners has filed plans for a 40-acre, 8.5 million-square-foot project at the site formerly known as Westgate Office Park.
Dulles Gateway Associates LLC’s 14 million-square-foot International City, to the immediate north of the airport, is expected to generate $70 million in annual real estate tax revenue. Dulles World Center, at Route 28 and the Toll Road, will add another 3.2 million square feet of offices, 1,265 multifamily units and 400,000 square feet of retail space.
The Silver Line’s 11.7-mile first phase, connecting East Falls Church with Wiehle Avenue through Tysons, is expected to open in 2013. The second phase, linking Wiehle Avenue with Route 772 through Dulles Airport, will require at least another four years of construction.
Loudoun, Fairfax, the state of Virginia, the federal government, Toll Road users and commercial property owners are splitting the massive price tag — though both Loudoun’s and the state’s commitment to the second phase has not yet been confirmed.