[CPEO-IRF] Post editorial on new Northern Virginia plan

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

A Welcome Brake
Thousands of Army employees might not tie up Fairfax's roads after all.

Editorial
Washington Post
August 3, 2007

FOR MONTHS it looked as though the Pentagon wouldn't apply the brakes on 
its plans to move more than 20,000 jobs to an area of Fairfax County ill 
prepared to handle the influx. But last week state officials struck a 
deal with the Army that would significantly ease the burden on Fairfax's 
highways. It's about time.

Under the Pentagon's base closure and realignment program, which 
Congress and the Pentagon designed to save the federal government money 
on military facilities, Fairfax's Fort Belvoir is scheduled to absorb 
thousands of jobs currently in Arlington and elsewhere in the region -- 
and by 2011, no less. The Army's plan was to place 18,500 workers on the 
fort's Engineering Proving Ground, a relatively sparsely used area of 
the base separated from the more developed main post. State and county 
officials worried that such a large number of new employees on the 
proving ground would add up to miles-long delays on Interstate 95 and 
other roads unless major improvements were made. The county instead 
wanted the Army to place some of the transplants in Springfield on an 
unused site owned by the General Services Administration that is close 
to Metrorail and Virginia Railway Express stations. The Pentagon did not 
appear receptive.

...

For the entire editorial, se
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/02/AR2007080202236.html

--


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org


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