Gov. Bob McDonnell said Tuesday that he plans to send a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates outlining his concerns with traffic congestion expected by the relocation of thousands of defense workers to the Mark Center in Alexandria by September.
“The Mark Center is a significant challenge,” said McDonnell on his monthly call-in show on WTOP, adding that he talked to Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., after an inspector general’s report released last week said the Army was wrongly claimed that shifting thousands of defense workers to the new facility near Interstate 395 and Seminary Road wouldn’t cause significant traffic problems.
The federal government agreed to provide $20 million for road improvements and the state is paying $80 million for a ramp near the site to help ease congestion. But McDonnell noted that the ramp project could be delayed 18 months or longer because the federal government is requiring an environmental review.
“We’re going to work with DoD and see if we can work some things out; I’m going to correspond with them – perhaps they would delay people moving there until the infrastructure improvements are done,” McDonnell said.
“We’re going to try to work through the options, whether hopefully it might be a delay or something else,” he continued. “I’d like a little time to work this out – that’s what we’re working on now. I’m sending a letter this week to Secretary Gates spelling out our concerns and a couple possible solutions.”
“If we can work out some things on maybe delaying all those people coming here until the infrastructure improvement’s done, that’d be great,” he said. “The problem is it’s going to take us 18-24 months to get this environmental impact statement done.”
McDonnell also reiterated his opposition to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority board’s decision to build an underground Metro station at Dulles airport, a move that could cost up to $330 million more than building one aboveground.
“It’s not worth $330 million,” he said. “I’ve asked them to reconsider that…I hope they will.”
