Bethesda Naval Hospital Expansion

The Navy's design for an expanded Bethesda Navy Hospital was a monumental missed opportunity for transportation planning. If the Environmental Impact Statement is taken at face value, transit usage at the facility will be sharply reduced while auto commuting will increase.

Ignoring the legal requirement to study alternatives with reduced environmental impacts, the Navy studied two alternatives that both add 1800 heavily subsidized parking spaces, far more than the 2200 new employees (many working weekends and shifts) and new hospital visitors will need. The Navy refused to analyze a no-added-parking alternative proposed by ACT and endorsed by the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Chamber of Commerce. This ignored the basic purpose of an EIS, which is to look at alternatives with less environmental impact.

According to the EIS (Appendix C, page 50), if new employees generate commuting and visitor trips at the same rate as existing Bethesda Naval employees, the proposed 2200 new employees would put 418 cars on the road during the most congested 60 minutes of the evening rush hour. The ACT proposal would have further reduced this number by clustering buildings near Metro and making transit more accessible. But the EIS projected 921 auto trips during that hour - more than double the number generated by an equal number of current employees.

With hospital construction now well under way, Rep. Van Hollen and Sens. Cardin and Mikulski have won federal funding for transportation. While most of this money was for road widenings, a considerable portion was intended to improve access to the Medical Center Metro station. Metro staff studied five options, including a new elevator entrance to the Metro station. But the Montgomery County Dept. of Transportation is trying to divert that money into a road-building project. After one plan for a four-lane underpass beneath Rockville Pike was exposed by ACT, MCDOT came up with a second underpass plan that is only slightly less objectionable.

ACT's vision of a transit-oriented Naval Hospital

ACT's comments on the EIS

Critique of the transportation analysis

Comments to the BRAC program manager