Officials overseeing the construction of the Dulles Rail project publicly admitted for the first time Wednesday that there are “issues” that have put the $6 billion project behind schedule, but insisted that its first phase would open as scheduled by January 2014. “We are continuing to work very hard to make our expected completion date,” said Jack Potter, president and Cheif Executive Officer of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. Project leaders “have assured me that this project can be brought in on time if we work through some issues.”

Documents obtained last week by The Washington Examiner showed that the project was as much as six months behind schedule as of July. After first denying that there were delays, authority members acknowledged the problems but insisted that the contractor, Dulles Transit Partners, would be able to make up the lost time over the final two years of construction.