Report: Navy Med expansion has issues

World-class medical center could be marred by traffic and unsafe intersections while money for potential fixes is uncertain

The report addresses the federally mandated move of some functions from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda by 2011.

The Navy’s EIS contained information that the Navy has periodically released since the process began last year. The merger will bring 2,500 new employees to Bethesda and double annual patient and visitor load to almost 1 million by 2011, the report said.

Other elements were not previously released to the public. The report recommended against building an off-ramp into the Navy Med base from the Beltway because it would not significantly ease traffic near the base and raised security concerns.

It also detailed the Navy’s traffic study results, including a 96-page appendix on the traffic study. The report said one intersection will suffer directly from the project. Rockville Pike and North Drive will exceed the county traffic limit due to the merger, the report said. Other intersections near the campus — West Cedar Lane at Rockville Pike and Old Georgetown Road, and Jones Bridge Road at Rockville Pike and Connecticut Avenue — would have exceeded county limits by 2011 even without the merger, the report said.

Elected officials and residents responded earlier this week, saying the report was too vague about funding responsibility for transportation projects.

The total figure is close to $210 million for short-term and long-term projects to ease Bethesda through the merger, according to Phil Alperson, the county’s BRAC coordinator. Short-term projects alone could cost $70 million. The report does not spell out whether county, state or federal coffers should bear the responsibility for these projects. But it suggested projects on the surrounding county- and state-controlled roads including a number of new turn lanes.

The Base Realignment and Closure Implementation Committee for Montgomery County will meet at 6 p.m. Dec. 18 to look into the Navy’s report. The committee will advise the county executive on the report, as well as draw up comments to submit during the public commenting period. The meeting starts at 6 p.m. at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center, 4805 Edgemoor Lane, Bethesda.

Alperson said the committee anticipated what was coming in the report because of a private briefing with the Navy last week. This is the first meeting of the committee since the report was issued.

Alperson, the former legislative director for U.S. Rep. Christopher Van Hollen Jr. (D-Dist. 8) of Kensington, said he thought the report was ‘‘a good start” but raised the question the committee was already asking: What is the Navy willing to do for traffic mitigation outside of Navy Med gates?

‘‘Ultimately in the county’s view, this is a federal mandate. That’s what BRAC is,” Alperson said. ‘‘And the federal government has the obligation to deal with this particularly because this is about Walter Reed and the military.”

‘‘After this consolidation takes place, there will be 10 intersections that will fail in that area,” County Councilman Roger Berliner (D-Dist. 1) of Potomac said.

Berliner also questioned the number of new parking spaces proposed in the report. The Navy will add 824,000 square feet of new parking to the base for a net gain of 1,800 parking spaces, the report said. Berliner believed that number should be lower and public transportation should take priority.

Projects to address the ‘‘incremental traffic created by the growth of this facility needs to be provided by the cost causer: the federal government,” Berliner said.