With a replaced bridge now in operation over N.C. 24 in Clinton, Sampson County leaders are urging the completion of an overall improvement project for N.C. 24 that would see future upgrades extend all the way to I-40 in Duplin County. Construction dates back nearly a decade.
On Monday, the Sampson County Board of Commissioners adopted a resolution requesting the N.C. Department of Transportation fund the extension of the N.C. 24 project.
“The extension of North Carolina Highway 24 is … a critical component of the future growth of the population, taxable property, agricultural industries, employment, industrial output, and business prospects of Sampson County and its residents,” the resolution states in part.
Commissioners agreed that it is “in the public interest of the citizens of Sampson County that all elements of the extension of Highway 24 in Sampson County be completed as expeditiously as possible.”
The bridge replacement and improvements recently completed on Faircloth Freeway are part of a larger plan to expand N.C. 24 and link it with Interstate 40, a project that has been ongoing for years, dating back to October 2013 when crews began working to widen the roadway in Cumberland County.
The 40-mile project has for years been touted for its ultimate aim of connecting Fort Bragg and Camp Lejeune. The first four segments from from Vander in Cumberland County to U.S. 421/701 Bypass (Faircloth Freeway) in Clinton totaled about 27 miles.
“North Carolina Highway 24 provides an important east-west corridor for industrial, commercial, military and emergency traffic in Eastern North Carolina, connecting the metropolitan areas of Fayetteville and Jacksonville and serving as part of the Strategic Highway Network, a system of public highways intended to provide access, continuity and emergency transportation of U.S. Department of Defense personnel and equipment in times of peace and war.”
The first of those last two segments extends from U.S. 421/U.S. 701/Sunset Avenue to Cecil Odie Road. The second of the two segments will extend from Cecil Odie Road to I-40 in Duplin County. According to N.C. DOT, the right-of-way portion is currently in progress for the first of those segments.
Planning and design is in progress for the final segment, according to state transportation officials, with right of way year targeted for 2029. That remaining project cost is $120 million, according to the N.C. Department of Transportation’s 2020-2029 State Transportation Improvement Project.
Local leaders attested that the funding needed is available for state transportation officials to get the last segment finished.
“The Board of Commissioners of Sampson County further find that the North Carolina Department of Transportation has the funding and resources needed to complete the expansion of Section F of North Carolina Highway 24, being that segment of the highway from Cecil Odie Road to Interstate 40 across the Sampson County line in Duplin County.”