Alexandria officials hope a provision in the 2011 Defense Authorization Act will force the Defense Department to pay for traffic improvements near the Army’s new offices at the Mark Center. Local officials have been scrambling to prepare a plan to relieve the traffic congestion experts expect once 6,400 defense workers begin commuting to the Mark Center as early as September as part of a cost-cutting plan to consolidate or close military installations.
Under a provision Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., inserted into the defense bill — which this week cleared the House and Senate — the Army has 90 days to submit a plan to address traffic concerns around the Mark Center, including recommendations for funding them.
While the bill doesn’t specify who must pay the $17 million to $20 million cost of the improvements, Moran argued that the Army should be responsible for the traffic mess it has created, said spokesman Austin Durrer.
“That will all have to be worked out, but I think given the cost associated with these transportation improvements, and the fact that the Army made the decision to put the site here rather than on Metro, it puts most of the onus on them to pay for transportation,” Durrer said.
The Alexandria City Council recently endorsed seven projects to improve intersections near the Mark Center. But it offered no plan to pay for them and the Pentagon balked at paying.
The Defense Department’s inspector general will report in February on why the Army chose the site given that it has no access to Metro.
Parts of Moran’s original proposal were cut from the defense bill, including a limit of 1,000 on-site parking spaces, which he said could force workers to find alternative ways to get to work. Durrer said Moran will likely try to revive the parking restriction next year.
Though Moran’s provision was pared, it may provide the Army an impetus to put up the money, said Council Vice Chairman Kerry Donley.
“We’re disappointed that the 1,000-space limitation didn’t pass,” Donley said, “but we are optimistic that between the [inspector general’s] report … and this legislation, that it opens the door for the Army to identify transportation solutions and then fund them.”
