DOD is currently implementing several major force structure and basing initiatives that are expected to result in a large number of personnel movements and changes in the size and shape of its domestic installation infrastructure, most of which are expected to be completed by the end of 2011. First, under the 2005 BRAC round, DOD is implementing 182 recommendations, as set forth by the BRAC Commission, which must be completed by the statutory deadline of September 15, 2011. Through the 2005 BRAC process, DOD intended to transform its departmentwide domestic installation infrastructure and, as such, the recommendations have an unusually large number of realignment actions that are expected to result in significant personnel movements across DOD’s installations. Second, under the Global Defense Posture Realignment, DOD is realigning its overseas basing structure to more effectively support current allies and strategies in addition to addressing emerging threats and is returning thousands of service members, along with family members and civilian employees, to the United States. Third, the Army is also undergoing major force restructuring in implementing its force modularity effort, which has been referred to as the largest Army reorganization in 50 years. Finally, DOD is implementing a Grow the Force initiative intended to permanently increase the end strength of the Army and Marine Corps by 74,000 soldiers and 27,000 marines, respectively, to enhance overall U.S. forces. When considered collectively, the simultaneous implementation of these initiatives is generating large personnel increases at many military installations within the United States, which, in turn, is impacting the communities that are in close proximity to those installations. As specified in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006, it is the sense of Congress that the Secretary of Defense should seek to ensure that the permanent facilities and infrastructure necessary to support the mission of the armed forces and the quality-of-life needs of members of the armed forces and their families are ready for use at receiving locations before units are transferred to such locations. Because communities surrounding these locations also play a vital role in providing support to the military, it is executive branch and DOD policy that DOD shall take the leadership role within the federal government in helping substantially and seriously affected communities plan for and identify resources to help adapt to the effects of various defense program activities. The Secretary of Defense, or his designee, chairs the President’s Economic Adjustment Committee, which consists of 22 federal agencies and is charged with, among other things, ensuring that communities that are substantially and seriously impacted by DOD actions are aware of available federal programs. The Economic Adjustment Committee is also responsible for supporting the Defense Economic Adjustment Programs, which includes assuring interagency and intergovernmental coordination and adjustment assistance and serving as a clearinghouse to exchange information among federal, state, regional, and community officials in the resolution of certain DOD-related community economic problems. Within DOD, the Office of Economic Adjustment—a field activity under the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisitions, Technology, and Logistics)—provides administrative support for the Economic Adjustment Committee in addition to its duties to provide technical and planning assistance to affected communities. As of December 2010, DOD’s Office of Economic Adjustment had identified the affected communities surrounding 26 domestic growth installations in need of assistance based on direct DOD growth activities and in light of community-specific needs and resources. Figure 1 shows the location of the 26 growth installations. In our previous work reviewing DOD’s impact on communities surrounding growth installations, we found that inadequate transportation infrastructure was the number one issue cited by communities. Many of these needs had been long-standing and existed prior to recent DOD- related growth activities according to several transportation experts, and the communities, states, and the federal Department of Transportation are normally responsible for addressing transportation needs outside of the installation. In addition, to receive federal transportation funding, projects must emerge from the relevant community and state department of transportation planning process. The Federal Highway Administration’s regulations state that state and local highway agencies are expected to assume the same responsibility for developing and maintaining adequate highways to permanent defense installations as they do for highways serving private industrial establishments or any other permanent traffic generators, and that the federal government expects that highway improvements in the vicinity of defense installations will receive due priority consideration and treatment as state and local agencies develop their programs of improvement. Nonetheless, the DAR program, which is co-administered by DOD and the Department of Transportation, provides a means for the Secretary of Transportation to use funds appropriated for defense access roads to fully or partially fund public road improvements that are certified by the Secretary of Defense as important to the national defense. The DOD service regulation states that the program provides a means for DOD to pay a fair share of improvements required as a result of sudden and unusual defense-generated traffic impacts or unique defense requirements. (See appendix II for selected provisions regarding the Defense Access Roads program.) Although the program is a small fraction of other federal transportation resources—averaging about $22.5 million a year compared to the $42.4 billion provided to states and the District of Columbia through the Department of Transportation’s Highway Trust Fund in fiscal year 2009—it establishes a method for DOD, under very specific circumstances, to transfer appropriated funds to the Department of Transportation to make road improvements. Under the DOD service regulation governing DAR, military installation commanders are responsible for identifying public highway deficiencies that require corrective action, and contacting state and local transportation authorities for relief. State and local transportation authorities are expected to consider the defense-related needs in the context of all road improvement needs, including needs to expand and maintain existing roads and bridges when deciding which transportation projects to fund. If state and local transportation authorities are either unable or unwilling to address the need within an acceptable time frame, the installation commander may initiate a request for assistance under the DAR program, which may ultimately result in a determination by DOD regarding whether the request meets DAR eligibility criteria. Although the DAR program has addressed some transportation needs in communities surrounding many military growth installations, we found that a lack of knowledge of the program in general and, specifically, a lack of clear guidance on how to navigate the program’s complex certification and funding processes, has limited its use. From calendar year 2001 to 2010, Congress has appropriated about $225 million for DAR projects—ranging from no funds in several years to $89.9 million in 2008—for an average of about $22.5 million per year. Our analysis of DOD data shows that about $125 million of that amount was designated for projects at military growth installation locations. As shown in table 2, as of December 2010, DOD had certified 20 transportation projects as DAR-eligible for DOD funding at 11 of the 26 growth installation locations since calendar year 2004. Of the 20 projects certified eligible for DAR, over half of those projects (11 of 20) had been funded. A senior DOD official stated that funding for the remaining projects was pending, and that any funds provided would occur in fiscal year 2011 and beyond. Moreover, none of the funded projects were completed at the time of our review and the earliest expected completions were for 3 projects in 2011 at the former Engineering Proving Ground location at Fort Belvoir. Because most of the population growth at the 26 installations will likely occur by September 15, 2011—the mandated completion of the 2005 BRAC round—and considering the 10-year time frame necessary to proceed from design to construction for some major transportation projects, as estimated by the Maryland Department of Transportation’s State Highway Administration, most of the certified DAR projects to date will not immediately mitigate the transportation needs in the near term but should provide some relief in later years if and when the projects are funded and completed. As shown in table 2, the most common type of DAR project at the growth installations involves intersection improvements (8 of the 20), which can accommodate an increase in traffic volume using a variety of approaches. For example, the two DAR projects at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama will increase the capacity of the intersections by adding turning lanes. The DAR project at Fort Lee, Virginia will increase traffic volume capacity by transforming intersections into a roundabout. The DAR project at the Naval Support Activity Bethesda in Maryland will address a “pedestrian- vehicular conflict” at the intersection of Rockville Pike and South Wood Road to allow installation employees and hospital visitors to safely cross the busy intersection from the public transit metro stop. (Figure 2 shows the intersection as it exists today.) Four installations have DAR projects that will add new interchanges, such as entry and exit ramps, to existing highways. For example, Fort Bliss will add interchange ramps accessing Texas State Loop 375 and additional underpass lanes in preparation for the Army’s new Brigade Combat Teams and associated traffic expected as a result of the 2005 BRAC round decisions. (See fig. 3 for a photo of the underpass, which will be widened.) Another eight DAR projects involve new roads, road improvements, or road realignments. Fort Belvoir, the installation with the largest number of DAR projects, is using appropriated military construction funds to build Mulligan Road, as shown in figure 4 below, which will be the new public access connection through the installation between Richmond Highway and Telegraph Road. This road replaces the Beulah Street/ Woodlawn Road corridor, which was closed following September 11, 2001, for security reasons since it crossed through the northern portion of the Main Post of Fort Belvoir. The process for certifying and funding a DAR project is complex due to the need to coordinate with numerous DOD, Department of Transportation, state, and local stakeholders. The process begins with the installation commander. According to the DOD service regulation governing the DAR program, when the commander of a DOD installation determines that improvements to a public road are needed, it is the responsibility of that commander to bring deficiencies to the attention of the appropriate state or local authority.