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.
Stafford Supervisor Cord Sterling was praised by Fahrney for drafting legislation that would require the military to pay for a greater share of road improvements connected to BRAC.
"Cord has gotten us to place we would not have been able to get," Fahrney said.
Currently, the federal Defense Access Road program funds a road improvement only if the development at the base causes traffic to double.
In Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads, that's a hard standard to meet, Fahrney said.
Sterling's proposed legislation would require the military to pay its share of traffic impacts. If the development on the base causes a 50 percent traffic increase, the military would pay 50 percent of the improvement costs, Sterling said.
The Senate Armed Services Committee has asked the Department of Defense and Department of Transportation to review current Defense Access Road funding criteria and submit a report to Congress by Sept. 30.
EMERGENCY PLANNING
Emergency operations were another focus of the transportation board meeting.
Virginia Department of Transportation Commissioner David S. Ekern continued to roll out his action plan for the agency's response to crashes, hazardous material spills, weather and terrorism.
Ekern created the plan after severe icing at the Springfield Interchange in February led to up to seven-hour delays for southbound Fredericksburg-area drivers.
While the Feb. 12 incident was a factor in his plan, Ekern said major roads in Virginia have closed 119 times since October 2006 for more than four hours.
VDOT will have a specific action plan for each type of road closure, and the agency will host a training session this summer to run through different scenarios. Staff will be expected to know what to do in an emergency, Ekern said. He wants to see a "military" response to emergencies.
"I do not want people pulling books off of shelves and starting to look through sheets, saying 'How do I need to deal with this situation?'" Ekern said.
VDOT will handle weather events proactively. Last weekend, VDOT practiced reversing the direction of Interstate 64 from Hampton Roads to Richmond, in the event of a hurricane evacuation. Also, VDOT will use "anti-icing" technology on roads, treating roads before ice forms on the surface.
"We will be there before the storm to prepare and prevent," Ekern said.
The action plan will require $240 to $300 million over the next five years, Ekern said.
Mary Lee Carter, the Fredericksburg region's representative on the Commonwealth Transportation Board, said she has experienced I-95 closures and subsequent U.S. 1 overflows with a mix of local and long-haul traffic.
"I think this plan is wonderful," Carter said.
Kelly Hannon: 540/374-5436
Email: khannon@freelancestar.com