Road improvements surrounding the Army's move to the Mark Center are at least four to five years away, even as 6,400 new commuters are set to flood the area next year, according to new estimates from Virginia transportation officials.

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday received updates from state and federal transportation agencies about the dozens of major construction projects under way or planned for Northern Virginia's roadways.

The Mark Center improvements, according to Virginia Department of Transportation project coordinator Tom Fahrney, are mired in the planning stages.

"Mark Center is the latest challenge," Fahrney said, although state and local officials have known since 2008 that the Army would relocate the workers to the Alexandria site.

Several options for improving access from nearby Interstate 395 were shot down when residents complained that they would threaten the Winkler Botanical Preserve, which borders the site.

The Department of Defense nixed any direct-access roads into the center for security reasons, nullifying the remainder of the proposed solutions.

Officials will study new short- and long-term solutions, which will take about nine months, VDOT said. Environmental impact analyses will require another 18 months. There's also the problem of paying for the projects.

"Even if we had the funding today, it would take four to five years to complete that construction," Fahrney said.

"There are people who are literally going to change jobs because of the traffic that's going to happen here," said Supervisor Pat Herrity, R-Springfield. "It's a disaster."