THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, November 5, 1996 TAG: 9611050276
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 60 lines
If you're bound for work at an area naval base this morning, you probably should have left home by now if you wanted to get there on time.
A repeat of Monday morning's rush hour traffic jams outside the Navy's regional facilities is expected today, as base security guards crack down on drivers lacking base decals, insurance papers, licenses or inspection stickers.
A surprise inspection on Monday caused delays at the Norfolk Naval Station, Norfolk Naval Air Station and Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base, resulting in hourlong delays for some sailors and Marines trying to get to work. Less affected was Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach.
But the inspections did accomplish their mission, said Cmdr. Mike Andrews, a spokesman for the Norfolk Naval Base command.
When the heightened security was in place from 5:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday, Andrews said, guards discovered that 612 vehicles needed new decals, 145 motorists needed contractor badges permitting them to conduct business on base, and 24 lacked civil service badges.
An additional 200 motorists were issued one-day temporary passes, and 200 were issued visitor passes.
Hosts of others were turned away for having expired vehicle inspection stickers, expired military I.D. cards, or expired driver's licenses, registration cards and state tags.
``We even had one guy who tried to register a stolen car,'' said Andrews. The driver, he said, was arrested.
Under a year-old open-base policy, most area installations permit traffic to proceed through security points during daylight hours, even if they don't have government-issued stickers. That policy remains in effect.
But Rear Adm. Robert T. Ziemer, who took over in September as commander of the Norfolk Naval Base complex, decided Monday to test the ability of his area bases to secure their gates and control public access to their grounds.
The result: snarled traffic, particularly along I-564, where some rear-end accidents also occurred.
``We couldn't figure out what was causing it because there were no accidents at first,'' said Don DeIulio, who operates Metro Traffic Control, a radio and television traffic monitoring service. ``Then there was one accident on 564 and it got worse after that.''
With 800,000 vehicles on area roads, it doesn't take much to disrupt the flow, he said.
``When they do gate checks it affects not only base traffic, but interstate traffic as well, especially people going to and from the Peninsula,'' DeIulio said.
The Navy suspended the gate checks shortly after 7 a.m., when it was told the traffic congestion was growing, then resumed checking about 9 a.m.
It will suspend the checks this morning if traffic again backs up, Andrews said, acknowleding that Monday morning's traffic was a mess.
``I spent an hour and 20 minutes in it,'' he said. ``Nobody was too thrilled, but overall it added some good things.''
Among them, he said: It served as a reminder that military motorists need to keep their administrative data up to date. There may come a time when base security will be beefed up, and they'll need that paperwork to get to work.
``Believe me, our objective is not to clog all the traffic,'' Andrews said, ``even though that is what we did.'' by CNB