Northern Virginia, suburban Maryland, San Antonio and Lakewood, Wash., will share $300 million for transportation projects needed to improve access to medical facilities affected by BRAC 2005, DOD announced Tuesday. The biggest winner was Fairfax County, Va., which was awarded $180 million to widen 3.5 miles of Route 1 that accesses Fort Belvoir’s main post …
The shift of several defense agencies to Fort Meade, Md., under BRAC is complete, but a final deal with a developer to build a massive office park on the post still has not been reached. The enhanced use lease agreement, which has been under negotiation since 2006, would allow Trammell Crow to construct 10 or more buildings totaling 1.7 million square feet of office space on a 170-acre campus …
Military and community officials point to shortcomings in local higher education offerings as a primary reason they have been unable to fill job openings at the missions that have recently moved to Aberdeen Proving Ground. Many of the jobs available at Army Communications-Electronics Command require specialized degrees that cannot be obtained in Aberdeen and Harford County …
The area surrounding Marine Corps Base Quantico in northern Virginia has skirted significant increases in traffic and school enrollment after adding nearly 3,000 new jobs to the installation, according to the Quantico Growth Management Committee. Many workers are commuting from their homes in the Washington, D.C., metro area rather than moving to the Potomac communities …
Applications from four defense communities to a DOD program funding transportation improvements at medical facilities growing as a result of BRAC exceeded its $300 million cap, meaning some projects won’t obtain federal funding. Fairfax County submitted the largest funding request, asking for $185 million to widen Route 1 near Fort Belvoir, home of the new Fort Belvoir Community Hospital …
Officials at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base said they are pleased that a higher-than-expected portion of civilian employees opted to move when their jobs relocated due to BRAC, an outcome that has eased the transition of the School of Aerospace Medicine from San Antonio to Dayton …
After six years, nearly $18 billion in spending and the relocation of 20,000 civilian positions, the Army successfully carried out the BRAC 2005 recommendations by the Sept. 15 deadline, the Army News Service reported. The Army was responsible for 47 percent of the entire BRAC program, resulting in the service’s largest organizational transformation since World War II …
In a bid to prevent overwhelming traffic congestion in northern Virginia, the region’s congressional delegation is asking DOD for enhanced oversight of its plan to mitigate the impact of moving 6,400 DOD civilian employees to Alexandria’s Mark Center. “We are concerned that the department’s occupation plan is going forward before the appropriate transportation improvements and mitigation measures are in place …
Maryland Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown this week responded swiftly to a commentary disparaging the state’s efforts to make the transportation improvements needed to accommodate a burst of growth at five installations. Despite the severe economic downturn, the state invested $3.5 billion in transportation, higher education, school construction and other infrastructure projects in counties affected by BRAC …
The Senate Appropriations Committee is urging the Economic Development Administration to provide support to defense communities affected by BRAC closures or mission growth through its various economic development assistance programs. “The committee encourages EDA to provide the most efficient and effective assistance to defense growth communities and communities impacted by closures based on urgency and level of need …