Fort Belvoir sat in the shadow of a massive, federally mandated worker influx in 2006, a year characterized by pressured planning, fiscal wrangling and an overall lack of real transportation solutions.

Some 22,000 new military jobs are slated to arrive at Fort Belvoir by 2011, part of a broad reorganization of U.S. military installations known as Base Realignment and Closure. While the 2005 order will no doubt spur development and investment in the less-developed southern part of Fairfax County, the inadequacy of transportation infrastructure — and lack of dollars to fund the improvements needed to support the shift of workers — has created a planning nightmare.