For Immediate Release:       Contact: Austin Durrer
July 28, 2009                              202-225-4376
                     www.house.gov/moran  

Moran Requests Meeting w/ Sec. Gates on BRAC Transportation Issues

Washington, D.C., July 28th – Congressman Jim Moran, Virginia Democrat, has sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates requesting a meeting to discuss transportation issues involved with the transfer of 19,000 military and civilian personnel to Fort Belvoir pursuant to the 2005 BRAC decision.

“It’s no secret the Washington region has the second worst traffic congestion in the nation,” said Moran. “The average commuter wastes 62 hours a year sitting in traffic.  The influx of employees being sent to Fort Belvoir threatens to greatly exacerbate an already problematic situation.  We must directly address the transportation needs of the Fort and surrounding communities before the transfer occurs. I look forward to sitting down with the Secretary to discuss these issues in greater detail.”

In the letter, Congressman Moran explains the impact the BRAC decision will have on the Alexandria and Fairfax County communities surrounding Fort Belvoir:

“The Army Corps of Engineers own studies have shown that severe congestion at the Engineer Proving Ground would last three to four hours each rush hour, and that traffic waiting to access Fort Belvoir would back up onto I-95 and extend morning congestion between one and two hours…These effects would lead to reduced employee productivity and degradation of quality of life.” 

The increased traffic would undermine improvements stemming from completion of major recent transportation projects:

“Moreover, the negative traffic impacts of the 2005 BRAC relocations to Fort Belvoir will erode hard-fought gains in regional traffic mitigation.  Bottlenecks resulting from BRAC-induced traffic negate the benefit of the Springfield Interchange “Mixing Bowl,” the I-95 Fourth Lane project, and the Woodrow Wilson Bridge project.”

Military readiness would be impacted if employees cannot efficiently travel to and from the Fort:

“As you are aware, the planned tenant organizations to be located at Fort Belvoir are some of the most sensitive, operationally demanding, and technologically advanced activities undertaken by the Department of Defense.  Despite their important mission, if staff has to spend 3-4 hours per day in backed-up traffic, then their ability to perform their duties will be negatively impacted.”   

The Army Corps own transportation needs assessment cannot be met because the criteria for roads eligible to receive Defense Access Road funding needs reform:

The Corps’s Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) identified thirteen necessary transportation projects at Fort Belvoir “to maintain the transportation system’s operational performance at an acceptable level of service and delay.”  These projects include intersection improvements, road widening, and investments in public transportation infrastructure.  Unfortunately, the limited criteria used by the Defense Access Road (DAR) program severely restricts DoD or the Army from funding the vast majority of these programs.  To date, the DAR program has funded $36 million in spot traffic improvements, a mere 8 percent of the $458 million in necessary improvements identified in the FEIS.

Fort Belvoir has been very responsive, but assistance from the Secretary is needed:

While personnel at Fort Belvoir have taken significant measures to try and mitigate the coming traffic problems, the transportation infrastructure in the region is simply inadequate to accommodate the influx of 19,000 new personnel… To address these concerns, I request a meeting with yourself, or your designee, to discuss the federal solutions to this impending problem. 

*Attached is the full text of the letter to Secretary Gates.

**Rep. Moran has been an outspoken opponent of the arbitrary 2005 BRAC decision by former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to relocate military personnel out of leased office space, most of which has located within walking distance of Metro, to military installations that lack adequate public transit access. Since the decision was finalized in 2005, he has actively fought for the needs of the affected communities and repeatedly sought to delay BRAC’s statutory deadline for completion of the transfer of 19,000 employees to Fort Belvoir by 2011. This letter is the latest in a series of actions, teaming with local, state and his colleagues in Congress, to find solutions to the issues created by the original BRAC decision.

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