The Army lashed out at Virginia officials who have repeatedly criticized its shifting of thousands of defense workers to Alexandria’s Mark Center after yet another report was released Thursday that faulted the Army for failing to anticipate the massive traffic problems it was creating.
The report by the Department of Defense inspector general, the sixth to criticize the Mark Center move, accuses the Army of measuring traffic around the facility on holidays and non-school days, which showed traffic was as much as 35 percent less than it actually is most days.
The latest report ripped the Army for producing a transportation plan that didn’t meet federal standards and for failing to provide long-term funding for commuter buses, bike paths, pedestrian paths or other ways to help ease traffic around the offices near the intersection of heavily traveled Seminary Road and Interstate 395. The congestion caused by the Army’s decisions would lead to gridlock and slow emergency responses, the report said.
The Army denied the charges, saying it had followed all federal, state, local and professional standards and that local officials gave the go-ahead for the Mark Center move.
“[Alexandria] officials, though well aware of the existing congestion conditions and the potential future impacts to [Interstate 395] and other primary arterials, had approved the proposed zoning and development following a thorough public review process that included consideration of transportation management issues,” the Army wrote in its response to the IG report.
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But city officials say they weren’t to blame.
“We the city and others have been saying all along this was not the right site for the project,” Alexandria Mayor Bill Euille said. He refused to comment on the IG report specifically because he had not seen it yet.
Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., called the Army’s response “astounding.”
“The Army is in a deep state of denial,” Moran said. “They [local officials] have disagreed with every one of these conclusions.”
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said the Army should take responsibility for “cooking the books” so it could claim that moving 6,400 workers to the Mark Center site wouldn’t cause traffic problems.
“The Army ought to take a time out on shoving more people into this facility, creating additional congestion, at least until we get a good study in place and until we get some of these transportation improvements built,” he said.
Moran and Warner are pushing legislation that would temporarily limit parking spaces at the Mark Center, in the hopes of cutting the number of cars on the road, until the Army provides permanent congestion relief.
“The Army created the mess. We would like for them to come up with some solutions themselves,” Moran said.
