BRAC and NOVA traffic revisited

By Charles S. Clark

Just five months before 6,400 Defense Department workers are scheduled to move to a new building in Alexandria, Va., a report by the Pentagon's inspector general's office has handed new ammunition to critics of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission.

In an April 20 report on the local traffic impact from the move to the soon-to-be-completed Mark Center building at I-395 and Seminary Road, the Defense IG faulted the Army's data in examining traffic mitigating strategies. Calling for more robust traffic studies, the IG said the Army's work concluding there would be "no significant impact" did not "adequately address existing and projected peak-hour traffic volumes; appropriate site variables; and effects of BRAC [site] 133 traffic on additional intersections and interchanges beyond the narrowly defined BRAC" area.

Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., who has long opposed the move on the grounds that the new building near his district is not close to public transportation, is hoping the IG report provides local officials with grounds for a lawsuit to block it.

"Unfortunately, the inspector general's report proved what we have said from the beginning -- the Mark Center decision was flat-out wrong," Moran said in a statement. "Clearly corners were cut and in some cases, what should have been obstacles to fast-track approval were ignored altogether.... I think we finally have the credible foundation for a legal challenge to this pending fiasco. It's one of the only remaining options, but it's a powerful one."