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For Immediate
Release: 5/22/2009
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Leggett Hails Inclusion of $20 Million in Defense Department Budget Request for New Metro Entrance at Bethesda Naval
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Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett today expressed his gratitude to the Navy and the County’s federal delegation for their success in including funding for a new entrance at the Medical Center Metro station that will serve the Bethesda Naval Hospital. The funds were included in President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2010 budget as a Defense Department (DOD) line item for $20 million for a Defense Access Road (DAR) project.
“This is still just a request but its inclusion in the recommended budget is a significant step forward,” said Leggett. “We will continue to push for what is needed.
“I greatly appreciate the Navy’s active support of this essential project providing convenient access to the Metro station for personnel and pedestrians at Bethesda Naval. This project will provide much needed traffic congestion relief along Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda by eliminating the conflicts between pedestrians and vehicles that are a major source of gridlock.
“We could not have gotten this done without the hard work of our congressional delegation - Congressman Chris Van Hollen and Senators Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin. Their leadership has been invaluable.”
“We have met with DOD officials to discuss the urgency of this project,” said Congressman Van Hollen. “Until now, the Defense Access Road program has always been used to widen roads. But now, if we can fund this line item in the budget, the DAR programs will also promote transit use and pedestrian mobility as a way to reduce gridlock.”
Senator Barbara Mikulkski added, “I will continue to lead the fight for Team Maryland and work hard to see that this project is funded and completed as quickly as possible.”
“I am pleased we were able to get this important project on DOD’s priority list,” said Senator Ben Cardin. “Our delegation has worked well together so that traffic gridlock won’t compromise the success of the new Walter Reed Military Medical Center in Bethesda.”
The station primarily serves personnel at two major federal facilities - Bethesda Naval Hospital and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) moving of Walter Reed Hospital functions to Bethesda will greatly increase transit ridership to Bethesda Naval.
The BRAC process mandated by Congress in 2005 will close Walter Reed Army Medical Center in the District of Columbia and relocate most of its functions to new and renovated facilities at the campus of Bethesda Naval Hospital. The transition will be completed by September 2011, at which time the greatly expanded campus will be renamed the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda. The facility is expected to be the crown jewel of medical care, treatment and research for the nation’s wounded, active and retired military personnel.
Once the changes are complete, there will be 2,500 additional personnel at the Bethesda campus - an increase of almost one-third - and the visitor load at the hospital complex will double to nearly one million visits to the campus each year. While Congress has budgeted well over a billion dollars for construction at the Bethesda Naval campus, there is no dedicated federal funding to help state and local governments deal with the increased traffic BRAC expansion will bring to the region.
“If a doctor, patient or emergency vehicle cannot gain timely access to the Medical Center campus because of gridlock, then the BRAC mission establishing this premier military medical facility will fail,” said Leggett. “The Defense Department’s commitment in the budget to help construct and pay for this Metro entrance is recognition of the federal government’s moral obligation to support the BRAC mission it mandated in Bethesda.”
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Release ID: 09-237
Media Contact: Patrick Lacefield 240-777-6507
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