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Defense budget will pay only a fraction of the costs of needed road improvements as thousands of jobs are shifted to Virginia military bases by 2011 Date published: 5/15/2008
BY KELLY HANNON ANNANDALE --The military will pay to improve the Interstate 95 interchange near the Russell Road entrance to Quantico Marine Corps Base.Still, millions of dollars are needed to improve Stafford County roads that will carry base traffic, according to the statewide coordinator for the Base Realignment and Closure Commission. Nearly 3,000 jobs are shifting to Quantico Marine Corps Base by 2011. The Commonwealth Transportation Board, meeting in Northern Virginia yesterday, received a briefing on road improvements connected to the move. The Department of the Navy has budgeted $2.9 million to improve Exit 148 on I-95, the Russell Road base entrance. But employees will use other roads to access the base. Onville Road in Stafford needs $16 million in improvements, and Telegraph Road needs $7 million, said Tom Fahrney, Virginia BRAC Coordinator. There is a $26 million gap between Quantico Marine Corps Base-related road impacts, and available funding, he said. "We don't expect the Marines to offer up any other road money to mitigate the impacts of the development," Fahrney said. On average, Stafford receives around $3.5 million a year from the state to improve secondary roads countywide. Onville and Telegraph are secondary roads. Transportation board members looked at job shifts at military bases across Virginia related to BRAC. At Fort Belvoir, an additional 19,000 employees are moving to base property. Fort Lee in the Petersburg area will receive around 7,700 new employees. COSTLY PROJECTS AHEAD Virginia is spending $200 million on two highway projects that will help residents reach Fort Belvoir work locations. I-95 will be widened to four lanes between the Occoquan River and the Fairfax County Parkway, allowing an additional 1,200 vehicles an hour to use the interstate. Also, improvements are planned for the Fairfax County Parkway. But several hundred million dollars are needed for other improvements. Among them: a new interchange on the Franconia-Springfield Parkway ($76 million), transit improvements ($57 million), other I-95 interchange upgrades ($50 million), spot intersection improvements ($15 million), and U.S. 1 crossings ($15 million). At Fort Lee, around $10 million in local road improvements have been identified, but none of those projects have a funding source.
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