If you use the All American Freeway entrance to enter Fort Bragg, now is the time to start planning an alternative route. 

After July 4, the All American Freeway entrance and Gruber Road Bridge will close as the entrance road and bridge is rebuilt, Lt. Gen. Greg Anderson, commanding general of the XVIII Airborne Corps and Fort Bragg, said during the “State of Fort Bragg” event on May 5. 

”To make this thing safe for the long term, we’re going to have to shut it down and do a significant rebuild,” Anderson said during the meeting with press and community stakeholders. “That’s going to cause commuting inconvenience, for sure.”

The project—estimated to take 18 to 24 months and cost $22 million—will replace current temporary fixes, Jeff Williamson, Fort Bragg’s public works director, told CityView in a phone interview.

One piece of the entrance that won’t be closed: the visitor center outside the gate. 

Anyone who needs a visitor pass will have to go to the visitor center, get a pass, and then turn around and enter through a different gate, Col. Craig Giancaterino, Fort Bragg’s emergency services director, said at the “State of Fort Bragg” event. 

The Canopy Lane gate will be opened 24/7 to accommodate the new traffic, according to Giancaterino, and if necessary the Rock Merritt gate may also go 24/7. Visitors can check a map of access points to the installation.

While the All American Gate is closed, Williamson said that the traffic models suggest about 70% of those drivers will head south and west to gates including Canopy Lane, while the rest will go north to gates along North Carolina Highway 87. 

Currently, the All American Gate sees around 15,000 people enter each day, Williamson said—with 3,000 an hour passing through during peak traffic. But Williamson is confident that the other gates will be able to handle the increased traffic. He estimated around 250 signs will be installed on and off post to help direct drivers to other entrances.

“The first day it happens, we’ll have some growing pains, but we’ll be fine, and we’ll get through it,” he said.

Problems with the bridge were identified a few years ago, Williamson said. Workers installed a temporary solution to keep the bridge safe while the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) drew up plans for a total replacement. 

The plan includes removing the current bridge, rebuilding the abutments that support it on either side, and then installing a new bridge. 

“They’re going to completely redo them to make sure that they’re safe and will last us 50 plus years,” Williamson said. 

A portion of All American Freeway that runs through the entrance will also see significant work. Built in places on an old landfill, Williamson said the asphalt in some areas is five feet thick as layer upon layer has been put down over the years. Workers will take out the existing road, compact the earth, and build it back up.

In addition to the main projects, Williamson said there are five smaller ones around the bridge—including managing stream culverts and other roadwork—that will be completed while the roads are closed. Those projects do not yet have a price tag as they have not been contracted out, but Williamson estimated they would be less than half the cost of the main project and should be completed during the same timeframe.

The project—from design to signage—is going through NCDOT, which Williamson said makes everything much more efficient. 

“When you deal with NCDOT, they take the whole thing and provide us a complete package,” Williamson said. “If I’d have had to do this other ways, I’d’ve had multiple contracts trying to figure out how to get all this stuff.”