The long road: 20 years in the rearview, Fayetteville I-295 construction still on journey

What’s next for the Fayetteville Outer Loop, aka Interstate 295?

It is a question Fayetteville and Cumberland County residents have been asking in some form for more than two decades about the loop, a North Carolina Department of Transportation project. The first leg of the connector to I-295 opened on June 15, 2003, a Monday, between Ramsey Street in north Fayetteville to River Road in Eastover.

Since then, Cumberland County has grown by 32,000 residents to a population of more than 335,000; a global pandemic in 2020 caused project delays here as it did everywhere else; a court case stalled some construction; and the estimated cost of the project stands at $1 billion.

Even before 2003, the project was planned for decades, according to The Fayetteville Observer in its coverage of the loop opening. The building of a bridge over the Cape Fear, which started in 2000, was the first major piece of the project.

More: A Murchison Road project will take land from 140 properties. Here's what we know so far.

The Fayetteville Outer Loop still has some miles to travel. The final leg of the loop, just south of Raeford Road (U.S. 401) to Camden Road is scheduled to wrap in summer 2026.

Steady progress

In the nearer future, contractors for the NCDOT are expected to complete interchanges for I-295 at Camden Road and on I-95 south of Green Springs Road, a news release states.

Drivers along Raeford Road just east of Gillis Hill Road have watched steady progress on the 295 interchange there. One exit goes north to Cliffdale Road. But the south-going exit is blocked with construction barrels and signs. That is the part of the road that will eventually link up with Camden Road.

“Keep in mind a 2-mile section southwest of Hope Mills opened last fall in between sections not currently opened yet,” said Andrew Barksdale, an NCDOT spokesperson, in answer to questions over email.

In November, the transportation department opened that part of the loop between Exit 2 at Parkton Road and Exit 4 at Black Bridge Road, south of Hope Mills.

“The newly opened segment is part of a larger goal to complete the outer loop in western Fayetteville and widen I-95 from four lanes to eight lanes between mile markers 37-41,” an NCDOT news release stated.

Making way

Three of five sections of construction for the loop have been completed. They are a segment between Ramsey Street (U.S. 401 Business) and the All American Freeway; a segment between the freeway and Cliffdale Road; and a segment between Cliffdale and Raeford roads.

The Raeford Road to Camden Road segment had been delayed for three years, which an NCDOT webpage said was “due to prior funding issues and settlements associated with the Map Act court ruling.”

The NC Map Act, passed by the N.C. General Assembly in 1987, gave the transportation department the authority to pick out private land where it wanted to build an eventual highway and prevent property owners from significantly developing or making major improvements to a property. In a case brought by a married couple in Cumberland County, a lawyer for the couple argued their home lost all its value because “no one was interested in buying a house in Cumberland County that might eventually be condemned to make way for the Fayetteville Outer Loop,” according to a story in the Raleigh News & Observer.

The state Supreme Court in 2020 ruled the Map Act unconstitutional in that it amounted to the state taking private land without providing fair compensation. The ruling meant the NCDOT would have to compensate others who had sued over the Map Act, including a mobile home park owner who settled for $2.8 million.

In 2020, the Fayetteville Outer Loop was among dozens of projects across the state delayed by the pandemic, hundreds of layoffs and a budget shortfall of $300 million in one fiscal year.

The Raeford to Camden road segment will run five miles and is contracted out at $151.8 million to Branch Civil Inc. in Roanoke, Virginia. The eventual exits will be at Camden Road, near Jack Britt High Schools, and Strickland Bridge Road — which will be realigned — near Century Circle.

Cars whiz by

These days, drivers along Raeford Road between Strickland Bridge Road west to Gillis Hill Road have had to adjust to delays as other roadwork near and around I-295 has become a daily fact of life. The work includes DOT installation of a median on Raeford Road as part of a long-term project to make 6.3 miles of the major city corridor safer.

More: Gillis Hill Road to be widened; 2 bridges to span Rockfish Creek

A 1.1-mile section of Gillis Hill Road, near the Walmart Supercenter on Raeford Road, is being widened from two lanes into four. The impacted area is east of the Hoke County line.

“Additionally, the current bridge over Little Rockfish Creek will be replaced with two bridges to accommodate the wider road,” the DOT said in a release. “To accommodate pedestrians more safely, sidewalks and marked bicycle lanes will be added to the widened stretch of roadway.”

Antonio Perez, an auto sales manager on Gillis Hill Road pointed to the road out of his big front window. Down an incline, the road stretching south has been reconfigured to allow construction, with vehicles curving around high hills of upturned clay and earth-moving machines.

Only a handful of cars whizzed by just before noontime on Thursday. But during evening rush hour it’s a different story, he says.

“The traffic is unbelievable come four or five o’clock,” he says. “Bumper to bumper.”

That is especially the case for the southbound lane near Gillis Hill Farm and toward Stoney Point Road. It happens to be the way Perez drives to his home across the Hoke County line.

Presumably, the lane expansion will alleviate rush-hour traffic. The road sees 25,000 vehicles a day, according to the NCDOT, a volume expected to increase by 24% in 20 years.

Perez guesses it will be “about two or three years” before all the work is done.

The transportation department said on its website a revised schedule should have the road widening complete in early 2025.

Myron B. Pitts can be reached at mpitts@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3559.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Fayetteville’s I-295 has 20 years in the rearview. So what's next?