Saturday, September 1, 2012
New lanes open near BRAC facility on Sept. 1.
Preliminary transportation improvements that will speed up traffic flow and alleviate congestion have been completed near Mark Center in Alexandria. The Virginia Department of Transportation announced that a new left lane on Mark Center Avenue and an additional right lane on eastbound Seminary Road from Mark Center Avenue, down the ramp to I-395 South, will be complete on Saturday, Sept. 1. The modifications to the roadway are the first in a series of short and mid-term improvements near the Mark Center complex, after the federal government moved 6,400 defense employees to the building as part of the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process. Work on the new lanes, which didn’t require right-of-way acquisition, was completed in only two …
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Local residents disagree over impact of proposed ramp connecting I-395 to Seminary Road.
The Virginia Department of Transportation held a public hearing in Alexandria Wednesday night to gather input from local residents regarding a proposed HOV ramp to connect I-395 to Seminary Road near Mark Center. VDOT employees were ready to answer questions on the draft of an Environmental Assessment (EA) of the HOV ramp project the department conducted and released to the public in December 2011. Tom Fahrney, VDOT’s BRAC project manager, said he and his colleagues had not found any surprises during their assessment. “We found impacts in terms of noise, and we’re proposing sound walls to mitigate the noise,” he said. “In terms of traffic [congestion], the models that we ran stated the obvious: Without the ramp, the northbound, all-purpose…
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Avego Driver pilot program begins at BRAC locations in June.
- GOVERNMENT
-
Sunday, January 15, 2012
By Amir Vera Capital News Service Thanks to a new phone app, it soon will be easier for commuters to share rides to military worksites in Northern Virginia. The app, called Avego Driver, will begin its pilot program in Northern Virginia around June. It will be available to government contractors and military employees offering or seeking rides to and from Fort Belvoir, Quantico Marine Corps Base and Alexandria’s Mark Center, three sites seeing more traffic because of Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC). The pilot project is managed by the Northern Virginia Regional Commission. Peggy Tadej, BRAC coordinator for the commission, said the new initiative will help commuters get to and from their destination. “Many of the BRAC employees have …
Friday, December 16, 2011
Buses, telecommuting, staggered schedules and transportation fixes will be needed.
Congress is set to pass legislation today that chastises the Army and imposes restrictions to cap parking at the controversial Mark Center property in Alexandria at 2,000 spaces. The announcement was made today by U.S. Reps. Jim Moran (D-8), Gerry Connolly (D-11) and Virginia Sen. Mark Warner (D) at the U.S. Capitol. Language in the Department of Defense and the Military Construction Appropriations Acts will allow 2,000 parking spaces at the Washington Headquarters Services facility for more than 6,000 federal employees. It will also require the DoD to complete an "accurate" transportation study of the area, revise their Transportation Management Plan and comply with the recommendations of a damning report released last month by the U.S…
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Webb, Warner, Moran and Connolly question DoD Transportation Management and Occupation Plans for Mark Center property
Today, U.S. Reps. Jim Moran (D-8), Gerry Connolly (D-11) and Democratic Senators Jim Webb and Mark Warner sent a letter of concern to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. They're worried that Interstate 395 will be a traffic-choked mess because of inadequate transportation planning at the Mark Center by the Department of Defense. The Base Realignment and Closure move at the Mark Center property near I-395 and Seminary Road, is home to Washington Headquarters Services, which will receive 5,000 of its 6,400 total relocated employees by this December. Known as BRAC #133, the project has been viewed with skepticism. "We are concerned that the Department’s occupation plan is not being adequately coordinated with appropriate transportation …
Monday, August 8, 2011
Express buses will run between King Street Metro and Mark Center
The Alexandria Transit Company (ATC) launches its new DASH Mark Center Express bus service today in preparation for thousands of Department of Defense employees to begin arriving in September. According to DASH's website, the bus service will "operate approximately every 10 minutes between the Mark Center and King Street Metro station during the weekday peak periods, from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. The express service between King Street and Mark Center will have no intermediate stops, and passengers will be able to connect to Metrorail, Metrobus, the REX service, other DASH routes, VRE and Amtrak trains at King Street Metro." The ATC has provided four buses for express service. According to the website, the buses "will have a …
Group will put together a traffic management plan to mediate traffic congestion around Mark Center.
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell announced today that the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) will establish a new task force to manage traffic and improvements on I-395 at Alexandria's Mark Center. This week, the Department of Defense (DoD) will begin moving about 6,000 employees to Mark Center as part of the Base Realignment and Closure process. According to a release from McDonnell's office, the task force will "...implement a traffic management plan to closely monitor traffic impacts, help manage delays and coordinate increased transit service in an effort to avoid gridlock on I-395," which serves nearly 200,000 commuters on any given weekday. “Traffic conditions at the Mark Center and Seminary Road/I-395 interchange will disrupt …
Friday, July 22, 2011
'The details are that you end up in traffic congestion, but we have jobs,' says FCEDA Chief.
Severe traffic aside, Base Realignment and Closure is a net positive for the Northern Virginia economy, according to Dr. Gerald Gordon, president and CEO of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority. “Ghost towns don’t have traffic. Cities with a 15 percent unemployment rate don’t have heavy traffic during rush hour because nobody is going to work,” said Gordon, who spoke with Patch from his office in Tysons Corner. “Our traffic is all these people going to work. It’s hard to argue.” And Gordon had advice for commuters: "Start early. Adjust your hours. Go in early, go home early. Go in late, come home late. I think that’s the answer. Or go further out, get near a VRE [Virginia Railway Express] station, and take the train. Carpool…
Friday, July 15, 2011
Gov. Bob McDonnell released a July 11 letter to U.S. Sec. of Defense Leon Panetta on Friday.
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has released a July 11 letter to U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta requesting a delay to the move of 6,400 federal employees to Alexandria's Mark Center. The move, which is part of the Department of Defense's Base Realignment and Closure Act, is currently scheduled to begin September 15, 2011. “Virginia is home to a large military community and several strategic installations throughout the state,” McDonnell said in the letter. “We are pleased that our strategic location near the Capitol Region, our quality of life and our pro-military policies have resulted in a significant investment and expansion of our military bases through much of the BRAC process. "However, to ensure that these transitions are …
Monday, June 20, 2011
The fourth part of an ongoing series with key officials.
A “big, challenging mess” is how Sharon Bulova, Chair of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, described the September influx of 19,000 federal employees to northern Virginia. “We feel a little bit let down here, being faced with a major move, especially at the Mark Center, without some way of being able to fund and to build transportation,” said Bulova, who spoke with Patch from the Fairfax County Government Center. “Fairfax County is installing some new Connector routes and redesigning some of our Connector service that will serve both the Mark Center, but also the South County/Richmond Highway area. And we’re also going to be providing some shuttle capability from the VRE [Virginia Railway Express] Station and the Franconia-…
Will Radle
11:38 pm on Monday, January 30, 2012
We need solutions now. Our Representative's performance in shepherding this project for our community has been pathetic. We cannot trust his motivations when he has been taking donations to help delay the move from Crystal City property owners. Let's not forget he does not just use campaign donations for stickers and buttons. He uses campaign contributions to support his lifestyle including … more ›