Belvoir Roadwork Estimate Released

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Correction to This Article
A March 3 Metro article incorrectly said that the Army proposed building a national museum at the engineering proving ground northwest of Fort Belvoir. Although that site was once considered for the museum, the Army is proposing to build it at the main post.

Belvoir Roadwork Estimate Released
$458 Million Plan Has Most Workers At Proving Ground

By Fredrick Kunkle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 3, 2007; B01

The Army proposed yesterday that most of the 22,000 federal employees coming to Fort Belvoir be located at the nearby engineer proving ground instead of the main post and said the move would require at least $458 million to help fix the congested road network in southern Fairfax County.

The proposal, which was part of a draft report on the impact of the move, was immediately criticized by Fairfax officials as inadequate. The federal government has not budgeted anything close to $458 million for the projects.

"This only underscores how critical the transportation improvements are going to have to be if this has any chance of working," said Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerald E. Connolly (D). "The proving ground is . . . isolated. They can't even get a bulldozer in there."

The move of six military agencies to Fort Belvoir, ordered by the federal Base Realignment and Closure Commission, is supposed to be completed by Sept. 15, 2011.

The Army wants to divide the employees between the main post, off Interstate 95 and Route 1, and the proving ground, an 807-acre area about two miles northwest of the post that was once used to test munitions. About 18,000 of the 22,000 employees would work at the proving ground site.

Although the general outline of the relocation has been known for months, the draft impact report detailed for the first time the Army's options and the estimated costs of necessary transportation improvements in the area.

Army officials said the option they have recommended would cost $458 million. The cost of the other options -- such as putting the employees on the main base -- would be as high as $742 million, the report said.

Release of the draft report initiated a 60-day period for public response and triggered warnings from local officials, who predict utter gridlock in the area unless the federal government invests in the transportation network.

If nothing was done, the report said, rush hour traffic at nine intersections near the post would get worse. Near the proving ground, it said, there would be "severe congestion lasting 3-4 hours if there is no mitigation."

The proving ground is served by Interstate 95 and the Fairfax County Parkway, although the parkway is not finished, and its completion has been held up because of an environmental cleanup.

Supervisor T. Dana Kauffman (D-Lee) said he was wary of the Army's new estimates because the numbers have changed so much over the last year. "Overall, it reflects the challenges before us," he said.

Bill Womack, legislative director for Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), said the congressman believes the Army's plan to jam so many people into the engineer proving ground is unrealistic.

Womack said Davis would like the Army to consider moving some personnel to a 70-acre General Services Administration property close to the Franconia-Springfield Metro station, but legal hurdles stand in the way.

"We intend to do what we can to allow the Army to consider the GSA property," he said.

Don Dees, a spokesman for Fort Belvoir, said the Army has reviewed the GSA option, but its hands are tied.

"At this point, the Army does not own the property. The GSA owns the property," he said. Nothing in the base closure and realignment law makes the site automatically available to the Army; some other provision would have to transfer the property to its ownership.

According to the report, the relocation of agencies will require 20 construction projects totaling about 6.2 million square feet of office space and about 7 million square feet of parking structures, creating a mini-city at the post. Most of the new construction would be at the proving ground.

Under the Army's preferred option, 8,500 people from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and 9,263 people from Washington Headquarters Services would be clustered at the proving ground, which is also the site the Army chose for a history museum that could attract as many as 1 million visitors a year.

About 2,000 employees from Walter Reed Army Medical Center would be assigned to a new hospital that would be built on the main post at Fort Belvoir.

The release of the draft environmental impact report marks a key step in the formal process required by federal law to build the necessary facilities for the relocation and opens the proposed plan to public comment.

The law requires a 45-day period for comment; the Army has opted for 60 days. The Army still could change its recommendation when it releases its final report.

The report is available at several libraries. The Army will hold a public meeting to discuss it but has not decided when or where. The report is available online at http://www.belvoir.army.mil/news.asp?id=DEIS.