In a sign that the nationwide military realignment known as BRAC is on the verge of transforming life in Harford County, authorities celebrated last week the completion of a 14-month, $23 million upgrade to the most widely used entrance to Aberdeen Proving Ground.
The expansion of the 715 gate, the entrance at the end of Maryland Route 715, also known as Short Lane, is the first BRAC-related project to be completed in the state, said Karen Holt, BRAC manager for the Chesapeake Science and Security Corridor, a consortium formed to ease BRAC-related growing pains.
"You've been on Route 1 in Dover going to the beach?" Holt said. "When you drive up, it definitely has a presence that signifies the magnitude of what is happening."
The gate had been strained beyond its capacity since the 2001 terrorist attacks forced heightened security at APG. It had to be expanded, officials said, to accommodate the influx of workers BRAC will bring to Harford and adjoining counties over the next 2 1/2 years.
Officials say the nationwide Base Realignment and Closure process will add more than 8,000 jobs to APG, as many as 10,000 more for contractors doing business at the base and as many as 40,000 new residents to Harford and nearby.
Fort Meade in Anne Arundel County will also expand under BRAC.
Until March of last year, the thousands of vehicles streaming through the 715 gate each day had to proceed through a two-lane security checkpoint, a setup that caused traffic snarls, especially during morning commutes.
Starting in two weeks, visitors and employees will encounter a modern, seven-lane passageway featuring toll booth-like structures under a single roof. They'll also spend less time sitting in lines.
Holt likened the new site to the toll center on a superhighway.
"It's an express entrance to the heart of APG," she said. "It really looks different."
Five of the new entry lanes will handle cars, the other two delivery and construction vehicles. A single lane will handle exiting traffic, as before.
Friday's ribbon-cutting ceremony served notice that BRAC is no longer a distant prospect but rather a phenomenon already well under way.
"This is certainly bricks-and-mortar evidence that the transformation is happening," said Mary Ann Lisanti, a Harford County councilwoman. "It's great news for the county."
About 350 new jobs, many of them from soon-to-close Fort Monmouth in New Jersey, had moved to APG by the end of 2008. Another 900 are expected to follow by the end of this year.
