Rats.

Metro's board Chairman David Wolff has called off [today]'s vote on a contract with the agency's rail builder in favor of a special board meeting next month.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority has been in negotiations with Parsons Transportation Group since last April to build four new rail lines: North, East End, Southeast and Uptown.

The board was expected to take up the contract with Parsons during Thursday's board meeting.

According to a Metro news release, the proposed contract now will be the lone item to be considered at a March 5 board meeting.

Unfortunately, it looks like the Metro board will also have to discuss getting a smaller piece of the stimulus pie than they had originally hoped.

Metro's share of the federal economic stimulus package is $92 million, about half of what was anticipated, the agency's CEO and President Frank J. Wilson said this morning.

The final version of the stimulus bill reduced the $180 million the agency had anticipated it would receive, he said.

[...]

Metro had requested $410 million in stimulus funding to begin [the North and Southeast] lines in addition to $70 million to convert High Occupancy Vehicle lanes into toll lanes.

The transit agency previously announced that the stimulus and other federal funds would be sufficient to begin construction on the North and Southeast lines this year.