Bethesda Naval Hospital expansion
The Navy's design for an expanded Bethesda Navy Hospital represents a monumental
planning failure. According to the Environmental Impact Statement 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 ignores 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 further
reduce this number by clustering buildings near Metro and making transit more
accessible. But the EIS projects 921 auto trips during that hour - more than
double the number generated by an equal number of current employees.
The predicted BRAC transportation disaster is entirely avoidable. The Navy needs
to bring its transportation planning into the 21st century.
ACT vision
ACT's comments on the EIS
Critique of the transportation analysis
Comments to the BRAC program manager
Return to ACT home
This page was updated February 24 2008.