Overview:

• A highway or loop had been sought for more than 50 years for Fayetteville and Fort Bragg

• Construction began in 1999

• ‘It’s a game-changer for Cumberland County in so many ways.’

With the snip of more than a dozen scissors on a red ribbon stretched across two lanes of newly built highway in southwest Fayetteville, the final piece of Interstate 295, the Fayetteville Outer Loop, was officially declared complete at 11:23 a.m. Tuesday.

The ceremony marked the end of a 26-year construction project. 

Construction workers picked up “road closed” signs from the onramps of the final 5-mile segment at 12:04 p.m.—after the crowd of a couple hundred dispersed—and traffic began flowing onto the long-awaited highway moments later.

Construction workers stand by to remove a “road closed” sign at an Interstate 295 onramp at Strickland Bridge Road on Tuesday, November 25, 2025. They opened the road at 12:04 p.m., and the first car to use the newly opened onramp drove down at 12:05 p.m. Credit: Paul Woolverton / CityView

“It’s an exciting day for Fayetteville, for Robeson County, for Hope Mills and for all of the areas that this opens up in the Sandhills,” state Board of Transportation member Ralph Huff of Fayetteville said during the ceremony.

The I-295 loop winds for 39 miles around Fayetteville and has been decades in the making. Since construction began in July 1999 and the first segments began opening in June 2003, I-295 has altered the course of growth and development in Fayetteville and Cumberland County.

And it connected Fort Bragg directly to the Interstate Highway System, which is officially called the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways.

The Outer Loop has already made it quicker and easier to move around Fayetteville and fostered economic development, several current and retired Cumberland County leaders told CityView.

North Carolina Board of Transportation member Ralph Huff speaks at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the final segment, five miles long, of Interstate 295, the Fayetteville Outer Loop, on Tuesday, November 25, 2025. Construction of I-295, which totals 39 miles, began in 1999. Credit: Paul Woolverton / CityView

“It’s even better than we had hoped for, in my opinion,” former N.C. Transportation Secretary Lyndo Tippett said. Tippett was a longtime Fayetteville resident who served on the state Board of Transportation before he became the transportation secretary.

The ribbon-cutting for the first segment was in 2003, between Ramsey Street and River Road. The Fayetteville Observer reported then that Tippett rode an antique fire truck from the nearby town of Wade that led a parade of cars down the highway.

“This is huge for Fort Bragg,” said Col. Chad Mixon, Fort Bragg’s garrison commander. “This is going to be great for access to us.” Fort Bragg, with about 50,000 uniformed personnel, is America’s largest military base by population.

The Outer Loop makes driving quicker and easier for military families traveling up and down I-95, Mixon said, and it fosters movement of troops and equipment to the port at Charleston, South Carolina.

A map showing the route of a highway around Fayetteville North Carolina.
The route of Interstate 295, the Fayetteville Outer Loop. It runs from Interstate 95 in Eastover, across the north side of Fayetteville to Fort Bragg, then down through west Fayetteville to the Hope Mills area, and then back to I-95 south of Hope Mills near Parkton in Robeson County. Credit: North Carolina Department of Transportation

Fayetteville has seen growth around the I-295 corridor on the city’s north side and west side, Mayor Mitch Colvin said. He said it has reduced travel times through the city. “Go from one side to west Fayetteville in 12 minutes,” he said. “It takes a 20 minute trip and reduces it.”

Other perspectives on the completed loop:

  • The town of Eastover, where the north end of the loop connects to I-95, has seen growth in its population of veterans and military families, said Mayor Charles McLaurin. He said Eastover residents’ shopping habits have changed, too, shifting from Dunn and the southern side of Fayetteville to the Ramsey Street area of north Fayetteville.
  • Cumberland County Sheriff Johnathan Morgan lived on the north side of Fayetteville and was a volunteer firefighter when the first segments opened. Fire department and law enforcement response times improved dramatically with the new highway, he said.
  • Highway access is a top priority of businesses seeking to build industrial and large commercial projects, said Robert Van Geons, the president of the Fayetteville Cumberland County Economic Development Corp. Fayetteville’s Amazon warehouse, which opened in 2024, is at the I-295 interchange at Bragg Boulevard.

“It’s a game-changer for Cumberland County in so many ways,” said county commissioners’ Chair Kirk deViere. “It connects us better. You’ve got less traffic. It’s safer. It’s better connections. You can move across our community from one side to the other. That’s beneficial for our residents. It’s beneficial for businesses. And just connectivity in general of our community.”

Guests and spectators attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the final segment of Interstate 295, the Fayetteville Outer Loop, in western Fayetteville on Tuesday, November 25, 2025. Credit: Paul Woolverton / CityView

Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.

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Paul Woolverton is CityView's senior reporter, covering courts, local politics, and Cumberland County affairs. He joined CityView from The Fayetteville Observer, where he worked for more than 30 years.