Pentagon studying Mark Center decision: Washington Business Journal

The Mark Center in Alexandria could bring more traffic than the roads can handle.

The Defense Department’s Office of the Inspector General is studying the transportation management plan and environmental impact of the department’s decision to shift 6,400 workers to the Mark Center in Alexandria by 2011 as part of the sweeping 2005 base realignment and closure process.

The shift, known as BRAC 133, has come under fire, especially from Rep. Jim Moran D-Va., for the anticipated congestion it will cause on Interstate 395.

Moran announced the investigation Wednesday morning in a news release touting the impact of his political pressure on the department to delay the move until the Alexandria center’s surrounding infrastructure has been improved.

Moran has blasted a 2008 study by the Army Corps of Engineers that said move’s impacts on traffic would be minimal.

The inspector general will review the transportation management plan in place as well as previous studies by the Corps of Engineers on the environmental and traffic impacts of the move.

“The DODIG is having an independent engineering assessment of the Army’s transportation management plan for the sufficiency associated with the site selection of the BRAC 133 project. The DODIG is also having an independent engineering assessment of the final environmental assessment implementation plan to determine the sufficiency and coordination conducted in completing the requisite environmental studies associated with the site selection,” the inspector generals office said in a statement to the Washington Business Journal.

The investigation is mandated in the yet-to-be passed defense bill that authorizes military spending in fiscal 2011 and includes language requiring the inspector to do the study. The Defense Department inspector general will issue a report in February

“I welcome the Inspector General’s decision to look into the validity of the study on which the Mark Center move is premised,” Moran said, in a statement. “The conclusion that relocating thousands of Defense Department employees to the Mark Center would have no repercussions for area commuters or for the employees themselves is flat wrong. The decision was based on flawed analysis and it’s my hope the IG will get to the bottom this mess.”

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