BRAC Employees Could Reject Area

MOUNT VERNON, Va. – Traffic congestion may force some of the 20,000 federal employees that are expected in the region next year because of BRAC to stay away. One local business group aims to convince them otherwise.

BRAC, the military’s acronym for base realignment and closure, authorized in 2005 by congress, will force the relocation of the tens of thousands of federal and military employees to Ft. Belvoir Army Base and Quantico Marine Corps Base.

“A lot of these workers that will be coming here are from places like Maryland and some as far away as Pennsylvania. Some are concerned they will not want to move here unless we let them know that this is a friendly community with businesses that meet their needs, making for an overall nice place to live,” said Quantico/Belvoir Regional Alliance Board Chair Joe Martin.

Many of the employees will bring with them years of experience, specialized training and high-level security clearances.

To help convince them, last year Martin and other business owners held a community fair at Northern Virginia Community College’s Woodbridge campus. Federal and military personnel were bused in to get a first-hand look at the area’s amenities and local business community.

Martin says more community fairs will be needed to convince BRAC workers to come.

But it was local business owners and political representatives who were invited to Mt. Vernon on Monday night for an informational meeting about BRAC and the effects it have on the region.

Ft. Belvoir will gain an additional 19,300 new workers and Quantico about 3,000 when the transition is complete. Many of them will be transferred from leased office space in Crystal City, where Metro’s Blue and Yellow lines make commuting easier.

“One of the first things that we talked about in the BRAC relocation is that we have to think regionally. No longer are we just Ft. Belvoir in Fairfax, with a north post and south post and Route 1 in between us. We’ve got people who work here that live in Prince William and Stafford, even people who live in Richmond who drive up to work here,” said Ft. Belvoir spokesman Donald Carr.

There is no plan extend Metro to either military installation. Carr says Metro could compromise security at Ft. Belvoir.

“This is just my opinion, but we have a phenomenal amount of security to get into Ft. Belvoir, and it’s getting tighter. I don’t think we need Metro cars coming onto the base with people on board who have no business to conduct at Ft. Belvoir,” said Carr.

Congress has funded some transportation improvements around the Army base, including the final phase of Fairfax County Parkway, as well as the widening and improvements to smaller roads on and around the base, and improvements to the post’s Tulley Gate.

So far in Prince William and Stafford counties the only major BRAC traffic improvements are at Quantico’s Back Gate on Russell Road, and the Interstate 95 interchange at mile post 148, near the gate.

Though the amount of traffic on U.S. 1 is expected to increase because of BRAC, so far, no federal money has been allotted to widen the highway.