The House on Thursday approved legislation that could delay the transfer of thousands of defense workers to Alexandria’s Mark Center, possibly avoiding the gridlocked traffic local officials said is inevitable if the center opens before road improvements are made. The provision, sponsored by Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., would allow the defense secretary to delay for up to a year the shifting of defense workers to new work sites. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is said to be sympathetic to local traffic problems, but is now barred by law from delaying the move on his own.
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Another Moran provision added to the House’s 2012 Defense Authorization Act, would limit the number of parking spaces at the Mark Center to 1,000. The new offices, near the intersection of Interstate 395 and Seminary Road, are nowhere near a Metro stop or bus services that can handle the 6,400 workers expected to move there.
Defense workers are now scheduled to begin moving into Mark Center in September.
A separate provision, sponsored by Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., would authorize the use of Pentagon construction funds to pay for road projects around the Mark Center. The measure would relieve some of the financial burden on Virginia, which committed $80 million to build a ramp from I-395 directly to the Mark Center site. The Pentagon agreed to pay $20 million for road improvements, but local officials are pressing for more.
Moran said Thursday the language limiting parking would immediately help ease congestion, “until traffic mitigation measures in are in place.” Without such a restriction, the additional traffic would add “a one-hour to two-hour delay” for commuters.
Various studies of the project have found the site was “improperly chosen and inadequately designed to handle the traffic it will create,” Moran said on the House floor Thursday, though the military had initially assured officials there would be no major effect on traffic.
The next stop for the measure is the Senate, where Sens. Jim Webb and Mark Warner, both Virginia Democrats, will move to put identical language in the Senate Defense Authorization bill.
Wrangling between the House and Senate over the bill means it could be months before the 2012 Defense Authorization measure becomes law.
“Our hope is they are going to see this thing coming down the pike and make the necessary adjustments,” one Moran aide told The Washington Examiner.
