Vote coming that may allow delay in BRAC move
The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote later this week on a bill that includes a provision to delay the move of 6,400 workers to the Mark Center in Alexandria.
Wednesday - 05/25/2011, 04:51am EDT
http://www.wtop.com/?nid=149&sid=2396386

WASHINGTON - The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote later this week on a bill that includes a provision to delay the move of 6,400 workers to the Mark Center in Alexandria.

Fairfax County would be the biggest winner if the proposed one year delay eventually goes through, giving the county what Fairfax Board Chairman Sharon Bulova calls a little "breathing room" to make some temporary improvements.

"Such as turn lanes, shuttle buses and thinks like that," Bulova says. "You know, those things are not in place yet."

Bulova says even the minor improvements will mitigate some of the expected congestion when the center is occupied. The target day is still September 15.

The minor changes, already funded, include shuttle buses from the Franconia-Springfield Metro station and turn lanes at some intersections right around the center.

If the National Defense Authorization act passes the House and Senate, it would then be up to the Secretary of Defense to actually delay the move.

Long term improvements include widening the on and off ramps at Seminary Road, which will take at least 18 months. Also among the additional work is a ramp into the HOV-HOT lanes that could take more than two years to complete. More than $100 million has already been allocated for the long term improvements.

More than 200,000 commuters pass the Mark Center on Interstate 395 every day.

I hope that they don't delay the move, so that when September 15 rolls around and 395 grinds to a halt, suddenly a bunch of money will become available and shit will get built really quick.

KeepOnTruckin Wrote:
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> suddenly a bunch of money will become
> available and shit will get built really quick.

When have you ever in your life seen shit get built really quick?

These fucktards on each county/city government of Fairfax, Arlington, and Alexandria knew this building was being built over the last few years. Now when it comes time for the military to move in, they speak up now?

Piggy Wrote:
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> These fucktards on each county/city government of
> Fairfax, Arlington, and Alexandria knew this
> building was being built over the last few years.
> Now when it comes time for the military to move
> in, they speak up now?


That is exactly what I was thinking. But I'm sure it is all political. The county probably wants the state or Feds to pay for the improvements, that party balks, the posturing begins, and here we are.

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That's not a ladybug, that's a cannapiller.

The people that work on the building and grounds park or take a bus to Landmark Mall and then get on a shuttle to Mark Center. Since Landmark is dead anyway Monday through Friday, perhaps a similar agreement. Might that help?

Fairfaxunderground rules: Lilliputions, not ok. Midgettville ok. I got it now.

Piggy Wrote:
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> These fucktards on each county/city government of
> Fairfax, Arlington, and Alexandria knew this
> building was being built over the last few years.
> Now when it comes time for the military to move
> in, they speak up now?


That’s horrible inaccurate. They were bemoaning this as soon as BRAC133 narrowed down 3 sites. Once the worst one was selected all hell broke lose. A simple Google search will prove everything.

http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=321526&paper=81&cat=104

Only in Fairfax would ppl argue over when jobs move in. The rest of country is dying to get good jobs, and we turn our nose up cause the exit ramps weren't built on time.

Sometime soon - maybe not this year, but in the next 2 -3 years, the govt is going to start shedding jobs big time. If this move to Marc Center doesn't happen, and then DOD starts winding down from Iraq/Afghanistan, and suddenly needs only half the space at Marc Center, FFX county will be bitching about all the jobs they are losing and will be going to congress to force them to fill this building.

hard to beleive Wrote:
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> Only in Fairfax would ppl argue over when jobs
> move in. The rest of country is dying to get good
> jobs, and we turn our nose up cause the exit ramps
> weren't built on time.
>
> Sometime soon - maybe not this year, but in the
> next 2 -3 years, the govt is going to start
> shedding jobs big time. If this move to Marc
> Center doesn't happen, and then DOD starts winding
> down from Iraq/Afghanistan, and suddenly needs
> only half the space at Marc Center, FFX county
> will be bitching about all the jobs they are
> losing and will be going to congress to force them
> to fill this building.


Two things:
1. These are not new jobs, they are current jobs, just that they are in Crystal City and Arlington right now.
2. Mark Center is not in Fairfax County.

JR, your link refrences an article that was published back in October of 2008. Those local governments bitched back then and still nothing was done to halt the move or the construction. Now at the beginning of the move in date they bitch. Nothing was done by the local governments from at least 10 of 2008 to now. Their complaining is assnine.

Piggy Wrote:
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> JR, your link refrences an article that was
> published back in October of 2008. Those local
> governments bitched back then and still nothing
> was done to halt the move or the construction. Now
> at the beginning of the move in date they bitch.
> Nothing was done by the local governments from at
> least 10 of 2008 to now. Their complaining is
> assnine.

Boy are you an idiot.

JR has already proven your original assertion wrong. Now you backtrack and say "Well yeah okay they were indeed complaining a few years ago (even though I originally said they weren't) but why did they STOP complaining until NOW? Answer that smarty pants!"

But the answer to your backtracked question is just as apparent to anyone who has followed the issue (which you clearly haven't -- making it all the more fascinating that you suddenly think you're some kind of expert in this thread). The issue has come up again now because the inspector general just ruled that the Army was incompetent in selecting Mark Center as the site. This is what the local governments said from the beginning. So they were right.

And I am also right in calling you an idiot. So myself and the local governments are on quite a roll.

Genius, had they kept up the pressure something would have been done to improve the transportation infrastructure at Landmark where the DOD would have boned up funds to make this happen. To answer your question, lawsuits are filed to not widen 66 inside the beltway, Metro to Dulles, VDOT not cutting median strip grass, insuring property taxes are paid in a down turn, and a whole other host of issues that are just as equally important as the Landmark DOD center. Instead of stroking off to Internet gay porn pay attention to what is going on around you. Fucktard.

Piggy Wrote:
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> Genius, had they kept up the pressure something
> would have been done to improve the transportation
> infrastructure at Landmark where the DOD would
> have boned up funds to make this happen.

Kept up the pressure how? Be very specific and detailed.

The reality is that this issue never really fell off the radar. You just don't pay enough attention. I know you haven't seen a thread about it on FFU (your primary news source) for a while and that's why you think it has been ignored. But there's 1) what you think, and 2) the reality. They are very different, bucko.

Local officials have been bitching about BRAC from day 1. They have wanted the Feds to pay for improvements and for the mist part have been denied.

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http://bible.cc/1_corinthians/13-11.htm

WashingTone-Locian Wrote:
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> Local officials have been bitching about BRAC from
> day 1. They have wanted the Feds to pay for
> improvements and for the mist part have been
> denied.

And of course they don't want to cover the bill. Has there been an estimate put out there for all the road improvements?

Duke Realty and City of Alexandria arranged the Mark Center mess.

http://alexandriava.gov/news_display.aspx?id=16566


Sounds like City of Alexandria was all gung-ho! for the Mark Center and the jobs. They don't care about the commuters on 395 who will now have to endure an even tougher commute.

@Duke - and when have Alex or Arl given two shits about commuters?

The city of Alexandria was "gung ho" about the MARC center fiasco for a few reasons, mostly related to bringing more money in through their doors via taxes.

In the past 4 years the City of Alexandria has raised private real estate taxes, raised commercial property taxes, raised parking meters in Old Town, tried to sell off one of their elementary school sites to a developer so they could turn the elementary school site into a behemoth mixed-use development and has tried (and failed) numerous times to enact a "business district" tax on businesses located on King Street in Old Town.

Most recently, they tried to use the Marc Center activity and traffic issues as an excuse to implement a new 12% tax to business revenues in the city, arguing that it was absolutely, positively, unquestionably urgent that we implement this new tax RIGHT NOW with no questions asked & no clear explanations on how the money would be spent or what projects they were going to fund etc.

Donnelly actually had a peice in the paper saying "we have to do this now, Arlington already increased their taxes and if we don't do it now we are going to fall behind and won't ever catch up."

He sounded just like a used car salesman.

The City of Alexandria is well aware of how bad traffic is going to be in the area with the Marc Center. They knew it would be bad from jump but the smell of more money to spend was too enticing and now that the fed gov has not ponied up the money for all of the infrastructure improvements, they want to implement new taxes or raise old ones so the existing taxpayers can pay for it.

traffic is going to be terrible in both directions of 395...its not fair