"None of the projects can be done overnight," said Holt, regional BRAC manager for the Chesapeake Science and Security Corridor. "You talk about improvements of roads and intersections - we can't afford to wait until 2010. ... We're beyond that halfway point to when BRAC has to be fully implemented by law."
In a survey of 20 communities nationwide that the Defense Department expects to be "substantially and seriously impacted" by base expansions, more than half expressed concerns about the level of information they have received about the newcomers and their needs, the Government Accountability Office reported last month. The congressional watchdog concluded that "high-level leadership" is needed "to help communities address challenges caused by DoD-related growth."
Officials in Maryland, which placed Aberdeen, Fort Meade and Walter Reed in that Top 20, say getting information hasn't been much of a problem. The Office of Economic Adjustment, a Pentagon agency, has given the state millions of dollars to study the effects of BRAC.
"The challenges obviously come when planning has to translate into bricks and mortar," Holt said.
Last fall, the state identified 26 transportation projects totaling $1.6 billion to help ease the flow of traffic around the growing installations, which also include Fort Detrick in Frederick and Andrews Air Force Base in Prince George's County. Most of the money is expected to come from the state.
Maryland's congressional delegation managed $15.36 million in BRAC-related earmarks last year - money to buy more locomotives for the MARC commuter rail system, improve access to Aberdeen Proving Ground and develop a new transit center at Fort Meade. But with the odds of Congress completing the appropriations process during this election season growing slim, members may not get the chance at a similar haul until next year.
"Our two senators and congressional delegation are working very hard to get as much as possible as soon as possible," said J. Michael Hayes, the former Marine Corps general who serves as director of federal and military affairs for the state Department of Business and Economic Development. "But the fact is that it's probably going to take longer than we would desire. We are looking at all kinds of interim solutions."
In Anne Arundel, for example, Bob Lieb calls the widening of Route 175 "the ultimate solution" to congestion around Fort Meade. The cost of the work has been estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
