BRAC News Bulletin

FROM THE CITY OF ALEXANDRIA: 

BRAC-133 News Bulletin:  August 8, 2011

This is the first in a series of updates on the BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure)-133 relocation underway at the Mark Center, and the City of Alexandria’s collaborative work with the Department of the Army as the Washington Headquarters Service moves to Alexandria. If you would like to receive future updates, please log into your eNews account and choose to subscribe to BRAC-133 Updates. For more information, visit http://alexandriava.gov/BRAC.

Employee Move-in Schedule: The BRAC-133 project will begin moving employees into the Mark Center building this week. According to the proposed schedule, approximately 2,300 employees will move in between now and September 15, 2011; 2,500 employees between September 15, 2011 and December 31, 2011; and 1,600 employees by December 31, 2012. While the Department of Defense will not release the actual week-by-week planned move-in numbers, it is likely that the employee move-in will be conducted in relatively equal weekly levels.

Transit News:  Alexandria’s DASH and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s Metro bus systems started new routes to provide additional service to Mark Center. DASH is adding a new express route providing service from the King Street Metro directly to Mark Center. Metro will add service between the Pentagon and Mark Center, and some Department of Defense employees may be able to ride free by showing their Mark Center identification card. The federal government is paying 100% of these new bus route costs, as well as for additional shuttle service.

Emergency Management: To train for public safety and emergency response at the Mark Center building, the City has been invited to participate in a Pentagon senior policy level exercise series and is making plans for an internal exercise. The exercises will focus on 1) incident command and control, and 2) understanding the emergency operations center interface for large scale incidents.

VDOT Mark Center Task Force: Today, Governor Bob McDonnell announced that the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) will establish a new task force and implement a traffic management plan to closely monitor traffic impacts, help manage delays and coordinate increased transit service near the Mark Center. Alexandria will have representatives participating on the new task force.