Like their Virginia counterparts, Montgomery County officials have had at least five years to plan for the Base Realignment and Closure Commission’s relocation of thousands of workers into new medical facilities in Bethesda. However, with the Sept. 15 BRAC deadline fast approaching, and with existing road and transit facilities already near maximum capacity, gridlock is not only guaranteed, it’s already a reality. Three major intersections surrounding Bethesda Naval Hospital have already been rated as “failing” by the Maryland State Highway Administration. How will MHA refer to these same intersections when 2,500 new hospital workers and nearly 500,000 annual visitors converge on them starting in September? Totally failing?

The dire consequences of the county’s total failure to do everything in its power to avert this coming traffic disaster will fall most heavily on commuters themselves, Bethesda businesses, and residents who won’t be able to get in and out of their own neighborhoods. But the gridlock will have a domino effect extending into the District and onto the Capital Beltway, where chronic backups will slow commutes for everybody else in the region.