A long-awaited document projecting the impact of transferring military medical services from Walter Reed Army Medical Center to Bethesda National’s Naval Medical Center left the biggest question unanswered: Who’ll pick up the tab?
As anticipated by Montgomery County leaders all along, a recent report from the Navy confirmed that Bethesda’s National Naval Medical Center is expected to add as many as 2,500 workers and see its patient load nearly double to about 900,000 visits per year after the closure of Walter Reed Army Medical Center in less than four years.
“The issue really isn’t that there will be more traffic or where the traffic will be because we know that, although it’s nice to have it on paper,” Phil Alperson, coordinator of Montgomery County’s Base Realignment and Closure [BRAC] implementation plan, told The Examiner. “The issue is how we will pay for the mitigations that have to be done.”
Alperson has consistently said official estimates say the county will need at least $70 million to make the necessary changes to accommodate the influx of traffic at the naval hospital.
County planners are recommending Montgomery County widen Maryland Route 355 from Cedar Lane to Jones Bridge Road and add turn lanes to several points on Route 355 and Connecticut Avenue, among other changes.
The Navy’s environmental impact statement released Friday called for many of the same changes, but said it wasn’t the Navy’s responsibility to pay for them.
“As a consequence, each of the following projects would have to be funded and implemented through the appropriate Montgomery County or State of Maryland transportation organizations,” the report said, adding that the funding could, however, include “federal grants administered through these organizations.”
Alperson said he believed it was the federal government’s responsibility to assist in paying for some road improvements.
“It’s not just about traffic, it’s about access to medical care,” Alperson said. “If an ambulance can’t get through because of traffic on the Beltway or Rockville Pike, that’s a problem, and the hospital fails in its mission to serve the nation’s wounded warriors.”
Action Committee for Transit leaders said they were upset the Navy’s document did not seriously consider an alternative proposed by their group and endorsed by the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Chamber of Commerce that called for the densest new buildings and affordable housing for hospital employees to be constructed near the Metro, to prevent gridlock and encourage public transit use.
