It’s official (for now), the Metro extension to Dulles will NOT be tunneled (The Post) through Tyson’s Corner. It had been reported recently that Kaine was going to support the tunnel option.

Area congressmen and federal officials convinced Tim Kaine, Virginia governor, that the expense of the tunnel option would jeopardize the whole project.

Reps. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.) and Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.) had cautioned Kaine in a July letter that the tunnel could jeopardize the entire rail line. In recent days, they increasingly made it known that Kaine should not count on them to secure federal support for an underground route.

Fairfax Supervisor and Metro Boad member T. Dana Kauffman was not pleased:

Ten years from now, I regret my son may pick up a planning text where Fairfax’s long-awaited rail extension is highlighted as a failed attempt at service and economic development. It can’t only be about the here and now.

Also, the completion of the first section from West Falls Church to Wiehle Ave. in Reston has likely been delayed until 2012.