NAS Patuxent River will open an additional lane to incoming traffic at Pax River’s Gate 1 during peak traffic hours of 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. Monday through Thursday beginning Aug. 1.
The move is aimed at alleviating an increase in gate traffic that has seen wait times of 30 minutes or more during peak traffic hours. Gates 2 and 3 remain open, and personnel are encouraged to use them as well.
“Current manning restraints coupled with a greater volume of personnel returning to work on base has necessitated opening an additional lane at Gate 1 to mitigate backups,” said Capt. Derrick Kingsley, NAS Patuxent River commanding officer.
Installation leadership had considered multiple options to alleviate traffic, including shifting personnel from Gate 3 to open two additional lanes. Ultimately, the decision was made to keep Gate 3 open.
“We quickly realized that closing a gate just to open two lanes at another would complicate the problem rather than help it, despite more lanes being open,” added Kingsley. “So while we’re opening an extra lane at Gate 1, we encourage personnel to continue using Gates 2 and 3 as well, as we’ve seen shorter wait times at those gates during peak traffic hours. We appreciate all of our personnel’s patience as we work through this issue, and I especially want to thank our gate sentries for their professionalism doing the hard job of being our first line of defense when it comes to installation security.”
For more information on NAS Patuxent River, visit www.facebook.com/NASPaxRiver, www.twitter.com/NASPaxRiverPAO
, and https://ndw.navy.afpims.mil/Installat…/NAS-Patuxent-River
