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.
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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 …
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
An overview of this year's big transportation projects in the area.
With students back in school and others back to work after New Year's weekend, traffic this morning was... back to normal. This means many local residents and northern Virginia commuters can prepare themselves for another year of traffic and transportation programs. In addition to a recent Washington Post article that highlighted a variety of the substantial projects that will turn heads this year, Virginia state resources provide numerous sources to plan your travel. Here's what's coming up in 2012 on area roadways: Capital Beltway & Telegraph Road The Virginia Department of Transportation has to wait for warmer weather before it can complete and open new Beltway lanes near Telegraph Road as part of its Woodrow Wilson Bridge Project. …
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, December 7, 2011
Roughly 3,600 DoD employees are now in Alexandria's Mark Center.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Cain spoke privately at a Doctors4PatientCare meeting at the Mark Center before leaving for McLean and Capitol Hill.
Presidential hopeful Herman Cain spoke at the annual meeting of Docs4PatientCare in Alexandria this morning, but he avoided questions about women who have accused him of sexual harassment. Docs4patientcare is an organization that works to “preserve the good qualities of our healthcare system, address the problems, while preventing its bureaucratic destruction,” according to its website. Cain’s speech at the Hilton Hotel on Seminary Road near the Mark Center was not open to the public. At several points after Cain's speech, reporters asked Cain about allegations that he sexually harassed women when he led the National Restaurant Association. Cain refused to answer questions, Politico reported, and he hosted just a three-minute press …
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 …
Thursday, September 15, 2011
2,500 employees moved in; 3,900 to come in the next year to the Mark Center.
Today marks the infamous Sept. 15 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) deadline, but it is not the local traffic doomsday people feared. That is because only about 2,500 federal employees have moved into Alexandria’s Mark Center at the intersection of I-395 and Seminary Road. The move-in of another 2,500 people will continue slowly through the rest of this year. The brand-new facility will eventually be the workplace for 6,400 Washington Headquarters Service employees. The remaining 1,400 employees are expected to move into the building by September 2012. Why So Many Feared Sept. 15 Sept. 15, 2011 was mandated by Congress as the end-date for the BRAC process, establishing a timeline in which the needed buildings had to be constructed and …
Thursday, September 8, 2011
A public hearing is scheduled for Dec. 15, but residents have only until Sept. 15 to weigh-in.
Alexandria residents only have a few days to submit their concerns about the ramp proposed to connect the northbound HOV lane of I-395 to Seminary Road near Mark Center. VDOT wants input from residents who will be affected by the ramp, and are asking them to send issues to representatives in the Advisory Group. Group members then have until close of business Monday, Sept. 12, to submit their concerns to David Grover, who will draft a document to send to VDOT. Shirley Downs, a resident of KMS Townhomes near Van Dorn Street and a regular attendee at Advisory Group meetings, was worried about the ramp's effect on her property's value. She produced a letter outlining a number of the problems she saw with the ramp, including the potential …
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 ›