Vihstadt: Vote Tuesday on Streetcar Designed to Feed Notion That It's a 'Done Deal'

The Arlington County Board is set to vote Tuesday on a recommendation by the county transportation department to award a major streetcar contract, to HDR Engineering Inc. of New Jersey.

The company planned and designed transit systems in New Orleans and Tucson, and helped manage the construction and design of the D.C. streetcar project. The board is also to vote on another award, for Kimley-Horn and Associates for street improvements.

The total contract authorization is $26,003,721, which includes roughly $5.3 million in “optional” tasks (e.g., “outreach” materials and public art integration) and a 15 percent “contingency” of $2.7 million for the base work should it be needed.

It’s expected that Board Chair Jay Fisette, and Members Walter Tejada and Mary Hughes Hynes will vote for awarding the contracts. It’s also expected that opponents of the streetcar, Board Members Libby Garvey and John Vihstadt, will vote against it.

Vihstadt is running for re-election to the board as an Independent, after winning a special election against Democrat Alan Howze.

“The Board majority is playing that old quiz show game ’Beat the Clock’ in trying to rush the signing of various streetcar contracts and agreements before the streetcar’s low popularity sinks even further,” Vihstadt said this week.

“They want to feed the narrative that the streetcar is a ’done deal’ and that it is too late to turn back,” he noted.

“But the fact is that according to the County’s own timeline, even the preliminary engineering work that would be authorized by this HDR Agreement won’t be done until the second calendar quarter 2016, actual construction won’t begin until second quarter 2018--two years later--and start of service is projected as second quarter 2020,” he said.

“So, despite the County Board majority’s desire to continue to spend millions more on a project that will be a fiscal and transit albatross for Arlington, the project is a long way from being a done deal. In fact, it’s still in the mixing bowl and not yet in the oven.”

PHOTO of Arlington County Board (left to right): J. Walter Tejada - Board Member, John E. Vihstadt - Board Member, Jay Fisette - Chair, Mary Hughes Hynes - Vice-Chair, Libby Garvey - Board Member/Arlington County photo