IT WAS ARGUABLY the most important step Amanda Schadegg would ever take in her new career as a hairdresser: giving her first paying customer a cut. The look? Victoria Beckham's shag 'do. The experience? Terrifying.
"I was so nervous," Schadegg, 24, recalls. "I had to stop and take a deep breath because I knew ... it would be a botched job if my hands were shaking."
In the end, that jittery first cut "turned out fantastic. The client loved it," says the Alexandria resident, who is currently in her fourth of 13 months in a cosmetology degree program at Paul Mitchell the School, Virginia, in Tysons Corner (8090-L Tysons Corner Center; 703-288-0008).
GOOD MORNING, WASHINGTON. We're hip-deep in the time of year when most people are thinking about slimming down, but in Tysons Corner, the talk is all about bulking up: new high-rises, more roads and "enough parks, schools, police stations and firehouses to serve an entirely new place," The Post's Amy Gardner reports.
It's all part of a plan to turn Tysons Corner in appearance into what it's become by default: a city, but one that's more walkable and accessible than the confusing knot of access roads that exists now — the result of decades of suburban sprawl.
The task: remaking an area that's home to several major highways, 28 million square feet of offices and 40 million square feet of parking, as well as a destination for 120,000 workers and customers at two of the nation's most bustling shopping malls. Piece of cake, right?
Continue Reading "Urban Retrofitters: The Plan to Remake Tysons Corner" »
THE EVER-TENACIOUS group of residents and business owners who have kept alive a fight to build the Metrorail extension through Tysons Corner as a tunnel have dropped their lawsuit to block a plan to run elevated track through the area. Mostly because that plan is already dead.
Reports The Post's Bill Turque:
Scott Monett, president of TysonsTunnel.org, a coalition of businesses and McLean-area residents, said today that the suit against the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is no longer necessary because his group believes that the agency recognizes the need to fundamentally reconsider the project. The coalition has pushed for a redesign of the 23-mile extension that would move the Tysons segment underground. Current plans call for an elevated track through the area.The U.S. Transportation Department and the FTA said in January that they couldn't provide the $900 million in federal funding that planners had expected for the project because of concerns that, as Turque reports, include "the project's rapidly escalating cost -- now placed at $5 billion -- the ability of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority to manage the construction, and the ability of Metro to integrate the extension into a system plagued by underfunding and a backlog of needed repairs."
» "Suit Against Dulles Rail Project Withdrawn" [WaPo]
Rendering courtesy Di Domenico + Partners
THE DULLES METRORAIL PROJECT. The expansion of Route 1 in Prince William County. Improvements to Route 7 in Falls Church and Fairfax County. All are major transportation projects that state and local officials are scrambling to salvage after they hit a series of financial roadblocks.
A report by Eric M. Weiss in today's Post details how a state Supreme Court ruling that nixed a main source of transit funding, the downturn in the economy and other factors have routed the commonwealth's transportation agenda.
The court ruled last month that the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, created by the state government to plot out and raise money for the area's transportation agenda, was not legally allowed to collect taxes and fees to fund those projects. Now, Weiss reports, the panel is trying to figure out how to refund the $12 million it took in this year — money that planners had expected to supplemented state transit funding for the region.
Continue Reading "Fiscal Woes Leave Va. Transit Projects to Languish" »
"I READ THAT as a lawyer, asking us to break a contract we have with someone else. That action would occasion a delay in this project and expose somebody to legal liability."
— Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, speaking to reporters on Thursday on efforts by some lawmakers to have the commonwealth solicit new bids for the proposed Dulles Metrorail extension, now that the Federal Transit Administration has indicated that the project is unlikely to get $900 million in federal funding it needs to move forward.» "Kaine Vows to Fight Efforts to Re-Solicit Bids for Project" [WaPo]As The Post's Tim Craig reports, Republican Del. Joe May of Loudoun County inserted a provision into the 2008-2010 budget that would force the Virginia Department of Transportation to rebid the rail extension, a move that Kaine vows to fight.
Image courtesy of Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project
WHEN DRIVERS ON NORTHERN VIRGINIA'S future high-occupancy toll lanes pay a premium rate to bypass congested traffic, they may be facing the same bottlenecks as everyone else when they exit.
As The Post's Eric M. Weiss reports, transportation planners in Virginia, along with the private companies that will build the new toll lanes on the Capital Beltway, I-95 and I-395, haven't quite figured out how to deal with some of the region's major traffic hot spots, like the American Legion Bridge and the 14th Street Bridge, where the HOT lanes will merge back into normal traffic. Writes Weiss:
About 43,000 vehicles use the carpool lanes across the 14th Street Bridge daily, according to government estimates. With the conversion of two commuter lanes into three HOT lanes, the prospect of customers paying high tolls to sit in traffic is a nightmare scenario for project proponents.Some of the options for 14th Street include restriping one of the bridge spans to accommodate a third lane or widening the bridge.
» "Will Drivers Pay to Hurry Up and Wait?" [WaPo]
THE FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION'S annual report, which assesses proposed projects, was released on Tuesday — and it left the controversial 23-mile Dulles Metrorail extension marked as "unrated." What does that mean for the project's prospects?
As The Post's Amy Gardner reports, the FTA says the data for the report came together in November, when the agency was awaiting new information on the Metrorail extension's cost, management and timeline. In January, the FTA raised concerns about the feasibility about the project, indicating that it was unlikely to qualify for $900 million in federal funding needed to move forward.
But backers of the project on Capitol Hill, speaking anonymously, told The Post that they were "pleasantly surprised" by the report's non-rating.
Continue Reading "FTA Report Leaves Dulles Rail Plan as 'Unrated'" »
THE PROPOSED METRORAIL EXTENSION to Dulles Airport is in such serious jeopardy that officials in Virginia are "willing to look at anything, big or small, to meet federal approval, including project management, financing and oversight," The Post's Amy Gardner reported on Saturday.
Last month, the Federal Transit Administration informed Virginia lawmakers and transportation officials that it was unlikely to give the long-planned 23-mile rail link to the airport via Tysons Corner the $900 million in federal funds it needs to move forward.
Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine urged cooperation in a letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation and the FTA:
We want to fully understand your concerns and then look creatively at how to resolve them to allow the project to continue forward. If we need to make additional adjustments — small or large — to proceed forward into final design, we are ready to explore those with you.Will Kaine's "conciliatory tone," as Gardner described it, save the rail project?
» "U.S. Input Sought to Save Rail to Dulles" [WaPo]
"WHAT THE FEDERAL SHARE enables us to do is to build this and keep the tolls at a manageable level, which is appropriate for the hundreds of thousands who use this as a commuter route. If you take the federal money out, my worry is that the tolls would be exorbitant."
— Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine speaking yesterday on WTOP's "Ask the Governor" program about the uncertain future of the long-planned Dulles Metrorail extension, which is poised to be denied $900 million in needed funding from the Federal Transit Administration.» "Kaine Raises the Specter of Higher Dulles Tolls" [WaPo]If the agency ends up withdrawing funding support for the rail line, the governor said that the cost of driving on the Dulles Toll Road could jump, as The Post's Amy Gardner reports. The price of using the toll road is already set to increase as part of a plan to finance the rail line.
Photo by Dayna Smith/The Washington Post
DON'T EXPECT THE FUTURE of the long-proposed Metrorail extension to Dulles Airport to be settled in the near term.
After the Federal Transit Administration declared the two-phase, 23-mile rail plan all but dead last week, U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, at the request of Sen. John Warner, agreed to delay any final decision on the project's $900 million in needed federal funding so that Virginia officials can settle concerns over the its management and costs.
As The Post's Amy Gardner reports, the cooling-off period "has given state officials some hope that the rail line might receive federal funding and move ahead. But the list of issues to resolve remains formidable, and the Federal Transit Administration has shown no signs of giving in."
» "Va. Gains Time to Save U.S. Funding for Dulles Rail" [WaPo]
» EARLIER: "Federal Doubts Could Scuttle Dulles Rail Plan" [Free Ride/Express]
Addison Road