It may not be the biggest, or the most recognizeable, but Fort Belvoir in Virginia is on the way to becoming the most complex post in the U.S. Army under the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) mandate.
The $4 billion transformation includes 20 separate projects accounting for 6.2 million square feet of building space, 7 million square feet of parking structures and the relocation of approximately 20,000 military and civilian employees from the Washington, DC area into facilities that will be managed by Fort Belvoir.
Defense agencies operating in Fort Belvoir will increase from 135 to 160 and the base population will increase to 26,400 – a larger workforce than The Pentagon. Most of the post increase will be in support of an $800 million, seven-story, 120-bed Belvoir Community Hospital complex that will be home to 25 primary and specialty care clinics and will replace the 53-year-old DeWitt Army Hospital.
The new facility will join with the Bethesda Naval Medical Center, to comprise the National Capital Region's integrated military health care organization. Bethesda is also being refurbished and the two hospitals will pick up patient services now delivere by Walter Reed Hospital, ordered closed under BRAC.
The BRAC projects are on schedule for completion by Sept. 15, 2011, as required by the BRAC mandate.
Most of the 19,300 employees being added to the Belvoir community will work in facilities off main post. Noncontiguous projects include: a $1.8 billion, 8,500-employee facility in the area of the post previously called the Engineer Proving Grounds; a 1.8-mile extension of the Fairfax County Parkway that will provide a contiguous link to U.S. Route 1; and the Mark Center, a $1.08 billion complex that will house 6,400 employees from 23 Defense Department agencies now operating in leased facilities throughout the Washington area.
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