Because of the lack of commitment by the Virginia Department of Transportation and knowing the military base realignment is on schedule to be completed by 2011, the Board of Supervisors approved $3 million last week for a Route 1 highway expansion design for six lanes and a median and turnaround lane for a two-mile section of Route 1 beginning at Route 235 south to the Fairfax county parkway. This includes the section of Route 1 that runs through Fort Belvoir where the bulk of the traffic will be moving on and off the base at the entrance gates.
Last week’s board action still leaves 7.4 miles of the Route 1 highway north of Rte. 235 to the Beltway needing a transit analysis of the road, light rail, and/or bus needs to accommodate the projected increase in vehicular traffic. The U.S. Army’s traffic consultant, Jim Curran, estimated peak hour vehicular traffic on Route 1 north and south of Fort Belvoir will increase from 1,800 vehicles per hour to 2,300 vehicles per hour. The traffic analysis was completed in 2007.

NOW THAT the funds have been made available by the supervisors to design the highway expansion, when can military employees and dependents, Mt.Vernon area residents, and other area travelers expect the work to be completed ? Katherine Ichter, a county transportation official, estimated that it may take two years to complete the design, two more years to acquire the land needed for the highway expansion, and one more year to relocate utilities. Thus, the area is unlikely to see the completion of construction of an upgraded Route 1 for this segment for five or six years, or 2014-15.
The six-year time frame for a two-mile segment of Route 1 means improvements in the much longer 7.4 mile stretch of highway from the Route 235 and Route 1 intersection north to the Beltway will lag even further behind since transit analysis has yet to be funded and the length of roadway upgrade is almost four times the distance of the Fort Belvoir section of Route 1.
With the completion of the Fort Belvoir expansion well underway and projected to be fully operational by 2011 or 2012, the southern Fairfax county community will be confronted with difficult traffic problems "far beyond what currently exists today," according to Ichter.

BRAC MILITARY spokesman Don Carr and BRAC hospital representative Dr. Richard Repeta provided these people projections of daily, weekly, and annual visits to the Fort Belvoir main post on Route 1 beginning 2011:
* Total employees coming daily to the Fort Belvoir Main Post: 3,400.
* Patient visits at new Ft. Belvoir hospital: 500,000 annually; or 4,000 per week.
* Eligible medical beneficiaries in the northern Virginia service area who may be coming to the Fort Belvoir Hospital: 225,000 (active duty and dependents; retired military and dependent family).
* Wounded Warriors Transition Rehabilitation Complex (288 patients); up to 35 percent are projected to be combat and non-combat related patients from Iraq and Afghanistan. No projections available on families visiting annually for this new facility.
In addition, plans are in the works to locate a new military museum. One of the site options being considered is at the main post of Fort Belvoir. The museum would be of interest to visitors from throughout the United States. One BRAC spokesman projected up to 400,000 visitors annually to the museum.