BRAC-133

BRAC-133 is the designation given to Alexandria's Mark Center, the location for the Washington Headquarters Service. This 2011-2012 relocation was one component of the Department of Defense's reorganization of its military base structure. Find out more about the BRAC-133 development and its impact on Alexandria.
Page updated on January 31, 2022 at 4:14 PM
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What is BRAC?

BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) is the congressionally authorized process by which the Department of Defense (DoD) periodically reorganizes its military base structure to more efficiently and effectively support the armed forces, increase operational readiness, and facilitate new ways of doing business. In 2005, the BRAC process mandated the move of many DoD offices from leased office space to secure sites that could meet DoD's high anti-terrorism security standards.

BRAC-133 is the numerical designation given to Alexandria's Mark Center, the location for several DoD agencies. The facility, now owned and currently under construction by the federal government, while technically part of Fort Belvoir, is on Mark Center property located at the intersection of Seminary Road and Beauregard Street at the I-395 interchange.

How does BRAC-133 affect the City of Alexandria? 

As a military installation, BRAC-133 is not subject to the local land use regulation. The City does not have any authority over plans for the site, but DoD worked with the City and to provide substantial improvements in building architecture and managing transportation demand. City leaders, staff, and the BRAC-133 Advisory Group developed a transportation management plan (TMP) with a stated goal of at least 40% of commuters arriving to the Mark Center by any way other than driving alone.

ANALYSIS AND UPDATES ON MARK CENTER TMP PERFORMANCE 

How are the City and DoD minimizing traffic around the site?

The most recent DoD report found that only 55% of employees who were present drove to work on any given day in October 2017—well below the 60% target established by the TMP. An updated report from DoD will be provided to the City by the end of 2019.

CURRENT PROGRAMS

While the Mark Center is not located near a Metrorail station, Metrobus acts as a shuttle between the Pentagon, which has a Metrorail station, and the Mark Center itself, arriving as frequently as once every ten minutes. DoD also pays the City’s bus provider, DASH, for a special express route, AT2X, between King St-Old Town Station and the Mark Center, allowing connections for commuters elsewhere in Northern Virginia via the Virginia Railway Express (VRE).

Washington Headquarter Services (WHS), which manages the Mark Center for DoD, administers transportation programming, including transit benefits, shuttle services, bicycling amenities, and ridematching for carpools and vanpools. WHS also supports City and regional transportation initiatives designed to further relieve congestion around the Mark Center, including the West End Transitway and the I-395 high occupancy toll (HOT) lanes.

GO Alex, the City’s mobility options provider, works closely with DoD on marketing and vanpool coordination.

PLANNED IMPROVEMENTS

The West End Transitway will provide additional bus capacity between the Mark Center, the Pentagon, and Van Dorn St Station. This will be similar to Metroway on Richmond Highway that travels from Braddock Rd Metrorail Station to Crystal City and Pentagon City Metrorail stations. DoD supports these initiatives, providing a 2018 letter of support for state and federal funding for the West End Transitway.

The City of Alexandria has developed a Neighborhood Protection Plan for the residential neighborhoods in the vicinity of the Mark Center.  These are the neighborhoods most likely to experience the greatest impacts from the opening of the BRAC-133 project.  The Neighborhood Protection Plan is designed as a two part program to proactively address invasive overflow parking in residential areas and cut-through traffic issues. The first part of the City's plan is enactment of the Daytime Restricted Parking District.  The second part is development of mitigation measures to address cut-through traffic as BRAC personnnel seek routes to avoid congested interesctions as they access the Mark Center.  These measures are commonly referred to as "traffic calming."

Daytime Restricted Parking District

A new daytime restricted parking district has been adopted by ordinance based on existing City stickers for the BRAC impacted neighborhoods.  You can see the map of the district boundaries at the link below.  On June 21, 2011, a Public informational Meeting regarding implementation of the Daytime Parking District for BRAC impacted neighborhoods was held.  Below is the pertinent information for the Daytime Parking District, which was distributed at the meeting: 

Petitions for each block face that wishes to activate the parking restrictions should get a minimum of 50% of the residents of the respective block face to sign a petition and submit that to Transportation & Environmental Services, ATTN: Daytime Parking, 301 King Street, Room 3600, Alexandria, VA 22314.

Traffic Calming

The streets that staff have preliminarily identified as possible cut-through routes in residential areas are identified on the Traffic Calming data collection locations map.  Traffic volume and speed counts have been conducted before the BRAC facility opens to establish base levels.  Residents are encouraged to advise TES staff  of any additional locations which may be of concern where BRAC personnel could cut through residential areas to avoid traffic congestion.

Once a base level has been established, and after the BRAC facility has been open and occupied for a reasonable period of time, recounts will be conducted to ascertain the levels of increase, if any, that can be attributed to BRAC personnel.  Staff will then determine the appropriate traffic calming locations and measures to mitigate the impacts.  These will be periodically reviewed  over time and adjustments made as needed.

BRAC-133 Emergency Response Planning

Mayor William D. Euille Expresses Security Concerns to President Obama

On September 8, 2011, Mayor William D. Euille sent a letter to President Barack Obama expressing his concern about security around BRAC-133. A Time magazine article on September 6, 2011, stated that antiterrorism experts "are increasingly anxious that something similar" to the Oklahoma City bombing could take place at the BRAC-133 Mark Center. He requested that the City of Alexandria be treated as a full partner with the Department of Defense in addressing the fire, emergency medical, and related public safety needs at BRAC-133.

Emergency Incident Management Planning for the Department of Defense, Washington Headquarters Service (WHS)

  • The City recognizes that it is extremely important to provide for the safety of both the employees who will be working at the WHS facility and those that live and work in the surrounding neighborhoods. 
  • Emergency management plans are in place for large scale incidents affecting the surrounding public. 
  • These plans are not specific to the WHS facility, or to any other facility, but are adaptable to address any such incident at any facility anywhere in the City. 
  • To make specific decisions and manage both small and large emergencies based on the exact circumstances of the situation, a large number of City staff, both public safety and non-public safety personnel, are trained in the National Incident Management System (NIMS), as are other local, state and federal emergency responders.  NIMS includes the Incident Command System (ICS), which is the structure used nationally to manage all emergency incidents. 
  • There is no specific emergency management plan for a major incident at WHS. Should a major incident affecting the surrounding community occur, we would handle it using the City's existing plans and established procedures. 
  • For incidents that occur in the WHS facility and/or on Federal property, the City's public safety departments will use ICS, established guidelines, standard operating procedures and doctrine that reflects the jurisdictional authority of the Federal government over the property and its unique security/site characteristics.
  • City public safety officials have more work to do. City staff are coordinating with Pentagon Force Protection Agency officials about how to handle specific emergency incidents that occur on Federal property, or in the WHS facility itself. 
  • The City is planning to hold an emergency preparedness and response workshop for the public in mid-September. This workshop would be designed to provide an opportunity for the public to hear directly from the City Public Safety Agencies about their response to several scenarios that may affect the WHS facility and the surrounding community and ask questions.
  • The City is also planning several internal and regional planning and simulation exercises this year. 
  • For security reasons, neither the City’s Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan, nor specific standard operating procedures for handling emergency incidents in general or emergency incidents at WHS will be made available to the public. 
  • The City's first responders will always do their absolute best, given the available resources and assisted by mutual aid partners from federal, state and local agencies, to protect the employees of the WHS and the surrounding community.
  • Just as the City has emergency plans (that are continuously being reviewed and updated), you and your family should also be prepared for any emergency. For more information, go to Ready Virginia.
  • Read More Details 

Frequently Asked Questions about BRAC-133 Mark Center Facility Emergency Response

On Thursday, October 20, the City of Alexandria held an emergency management information session to inform the community about current response capabilities related to several external scenarios in proximity to the BRAC-133 Mark Center facility. The City is providing answers to the community’s most frequently asked questions about emergency response.

If an emergency occurs, who will be in charge and how would an emergency be managed?
For law enforcement incidents that occur inside the BRAC Property the Pentagon Force Protection Agency will be in charge and command the incident. For Fire/Emergency Medical Service (EMS) incidents occurring inside the fence, the Fire/EMS first arriving unit will establish command, which includes assessing the scene, requesting necessary resources and directing those resources appropriately. The first arriving command-level officer would establish an Incident Command organization, which is a standardized, on-scene, all-hazards incident management approach to emergency management. This organization would include the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, if they had not established an Incident Command organization prior to the arrival of Fire/EMS units.

For Fire/EMS incidents outside the fence, the first arriving unit will establish command, which includes assessing the scene, requesting necessary resources and directing those resources appropriately. The first arriving command-level officer would establish an Incident Command organization that would include some (or all) of the following groups, depending upon the circumstances:

  • Law Enforcement (Alexandria Police Department, Virginia State Police)
  • Virginia Department of Emergency Management
  • Virginia Department Of Transportation
  • City of Alexandria Department of Transportation and Environmental Services
  • Pentagon Force Protection Agency

What are the priorities of the first responders when they arrive on the scene?

  • Life safety is always the first priority–for citizens and responders in immediate area.
    This priority includes establishing areas where it is unsafe for citizens to be located, notifying anyone in the hazard area, and potentially evacuating all or part of the area.
  • Property protection, which includes many actions such as extinguishing a fire.
  • Environmental protection
  • Stabilization of the incident, which would include actions such as creating a traffic control plan for the incident, security of the scene, and other related priorities.

How would the traffic be managed during an emergency?
Early in any emergency, traffic is severely affected and difficult to manage.  The first priority is to establish a traffic plan that will allow first responders to get to the scene and perform their tasks.  Additionally, in the early stages of the incident, it is important to divert traffic away from the scene to ensure the protection of the public and to maintain the integrity of a potential crime scene. Timely notification to the public and regional commuters is essential in this process. After traffic congestion has been stabilized, a traffic plan can then be developed, by transportation managers at the Federal, State and municipal level, in cooperation with public safety agencies. Staff would allow traffic to flow in a manner that secures the incident scene and protects the driving public.

If an incident occurs that requires an evacuation for all or part of the area surrounding the BRAC-133 Mark Center facility, how would it be accomplished? 
Evacuations are very rare, and the recommended action for almost every possible emergency is for individuals to stay in place and wait to receive official information from the City.
If an evacuation is called for by an incident commander, it would require an immediate emergency evacuation from a specific area. These evacuations call for people to walk away from the hazard area, and ensure that they are located outside of a space that would place them in immediate danger.  Officials will notify people in the area to provide instructions on which direction to move and how far they need to go to be safe from harm.  People who are physically unable to leave the area will be assisted.

Evacuations by vehicle during events that occur without notice will be very difficult, due to the limited roadways and volume of traffic that may be in the area.  If at all practical, walking evacuation would be the preferred method.  If for some reason evacuation by vehicle is necessary, it will require a considerable amount of staff time and resources to direct and assist the evacuation effort, and will be chaotic until enough resources are in place to manage the traffic.  Local modes of transportation, such as DASH and school buses, could be used to provide assistance, if they are available and able to get to the area.

How would the City communicate with neighbors, commuters, the general public and the media during an emergency event?
The City uses several methods to communicate during an emergency. Past experience indicates that there is not one single method that is successful in reaching everyone. Therefore, the City uses multiple tools to keep the public informed, which include:

  • The City’s website
  • Twitter
  • Facebook 
  • The City of Alexandria eNews service
    eNews is an email and text message system that can distribute messages very quickly to our 22,000+ subscribers to their email accounts, cell phones, smartphones, or any other text message capable device.
  • Public address systems on City owned vehicles
  • Door-to-door flyers or personal contact
  • Telephone Emergency Notification System (TENS)
    This system dials the phone numbers of established groups or defined geographic areas of the City with a recorded message. This is commonly referred to as “reverse 911.”
  • Press releases
  • Press conferences with City officials

What can citizens, residents, businesses, visitors and others do to protect themselves before and during an emergency?  

  • If you’re in a safe place, stay there
  • Shelter in place unless directly in danger
  • Tune in to television, radio, or electronic media to obtain and follow instructions from City officials
  • Listen to officials at the scene and follow their instructions
  • Tune in to receive important emergency information
  • Have an emergency supply kit at home, at work, and with you when you travel
  • Make a personal/family emergency plan in advance