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Intersections around Belvoir flunking before jobs influx, report says
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Related Topics: Fort Belvoir
Fort Belvoir (Map, News) - Several intersections near Fort Belvoir earn poor or flunking grades for their ability to handle traffic even before the area is hit by thousands of new commuters, according to a Fairfax County report released Friday.
As many as 19,000 new military jobs are set to descend on the southeast corner of the county by 2011 as Belvoir accommodates Base Realignment and Closure, a congressional order that three years ago shifted defense facilities across the country. More employees from defense contractors are expected to flood the area as well.
Friday's report by the county Department of Planning and Zoning catalogs the efficiency and inefficiency of road crossings that make up the lattice of highways around the base, part of a transportation network that planners predict will be swamped by the job influx.
The ratings are mixed - the intersection of Backlick Road and Calamo Street scores an A, for example, which means a free flow of traffic during peak morning and evening hours.
But the worst locations, which scored an F, are marked by a breakdown in flow and long backups during either - or both - of a day's rush hours. Among them are the intersections of the Franconia-Springfield Parkway with Spring Village Drive, Commerce Street with Franconia Road, the Fairfax County Parkway with Fullerton Road, and Richmond Highway with Old Mill Road.
It's a bad sign, considering that the consensus among officials is that the area's roads are going to get worse without hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of upgrades.
"The travel patterns within and through this area will be impacted by the Fort Belvoir BRAC actions, as well as future local and regional growth," the report said.
The Army says $450 million worth of fixes are needed, while local estimates run much higher.
Even though the intersections have low ratings, many of the long stretches of road in between remain uncongested, said Fairfax County Planning Commissioner Earl Flanagan, who helped write the report. Flanagan nevertheless said he is worried about the impact of both the military jobs and contractors on the roads network, the latter of which is far less predictable.
Report card
Fairfax's intersection grading scale:
A: "Free-flow conditions"
B: Free flow but with the noticeable presence of other traffic
C: Density of traffic, where minor disruptions and backups are possible
D: Severely restricted maneuverability, reduced travel speed
E: Intersection is at or near capacity, without the ability to dissipate disruptions, with frequent backup
F: "Forced or breakdown flow." Vehicles coming faster than they are discharged. Backups with brief periods of movement followed by stoppages.
Comments from Examiner Readers
12:50 PM MST on Tue., May. 6, 2008 re: "Intersections around Belvoir flunking before jobs influx, report says"
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6:40 AM MST on Sun., May. 4, 2008
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6:16 AM MST on Sun., May. 4, 2008
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6:05 AM MST on Sat., May. 3, 2008
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local resident said:
I live in that area just off Beulah. Telegraph road needs to widened to 4 lanes from the beltway to route 1. if homes and businesses need to be plowed or "god forbid" some protected wet spot needs to go, so be it. Also a road that cuts through Belvoir between Telegraph and Route1 is needed BADLY and NOW. Traffic in the western part of the county could also be helped by turning the fairfax county parkway into a TRUE highway. create under or over passes (with appropriate on/off ramps) for every place that the parkway currently has traffic light at intersections. Alot of people who live in the neighborhoods off of the parkway will be using it to get to Belvoir. The road system within the base is also wholly inadequate. Gunston rd needs widening and another bridge accross rte 1(like Gunston has) is needed.
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Don Carr said:
Report’s finding the intersections failing under today’s traffic is important. Too bad report doesn’t describe progress made dealing with BRAC impacts. Route 1 impact, for example, is minimized by actions urged and concurred with by transportation and government officials. For example, the 19,300 jobs will be disbursed as follows: - 4,300 to main post. VDOT and other analysis indicate as many as 6,000 more people could be put on main post before the highway would reach a grade of “F.” - 8,500 jobs to EPG. Again, at the urging of community leaders, notably Transportation Secretary Pierce Homer, Army agrees to cap EPG at 8,500. - 6,200 jobs to an as-yet-undetermined site, again prompted by community concerns urging they not go to EPG or Main Post. Interesting the report ties an intersection to BRAC before a decision has been made to place any of the jobs near it. Community itself is lobbying hard for Army to use the GSA site, to help renew the district. Seems disingenuous to
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Don Carr said:
“Around Fort Belvoir” is a relative term, considering that: “... intersections of the Franconia-Springfield Parkway with Spring Village Drive” is just northwest of the Engineer Proving Ground on the other side of I-95 from Fort Belvoir’s main post. “... Commerce Street with Franconia Road” is just across from Springfield Mall, and just up the road from the GSA site. “... Fairfax County Parkway with Fullerton Road” is at the western edge of EPG. “... Richmond Highway with Old Mill Road” is the only road in the article near main post. It’s the road to be widened/extended to Telegraph, in response to community demands that the Army replace Woodlawn Road, closed for security reasons on Sept. 11, 2001. While the report does emphasize that the intersections are and have been failing under present-day traffic volume, even before any BRAC growth, it doesn’t note relevant facts about progress already made dealing with BRAC’s impacts. That growth’s expected impact on Richmond Hig
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Examiner Reader said:
one more example of how screwed up this BRAC round was. The folks on the commission simply didnt do the job. The issues you are dealing with should have been considered.
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