If your parents land at Fayetteville Regional on a Friday afternoon and want to see post, where do they pick up a visitor pass, and where do they drive in? Until this summer, both happened at the All American Gate. Since 5 a.m. on Monday, July 27, the answer has been two places.
The All American Visitor Control Center is still open from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week. The gate next to it is closed, and anyone with a fresh pass has to drive off and use another gate to get onto the installation. Almost every bit of hosting on post this fall follows from that split. Fort Bragg expects the construction to take up to 24 months from the July 27 closure.
Why the front door is closed this long
The N.C. Department of Transportation approved a $15.5 million project to replace the 50-year-old Gruber Road bridge over the All American Freeway. The project also makes permanent repairs to a stretch of freeway that has been settling and damaging its pavement and drainage. The freeway was built over an old landfill, so the fix means removing, replacing and compacting several feet of soil. The old bridge also carries weight limits that keep some heavy military equipment off it, and the new one will have none.
NCDOT chose one long closure over a string of shorter ones. Its reasoning is that consolidating the work speeds construction, lowers costs and keeps crews and detoured drivers safer. Local contractor Highland Paving is doing the work. By mid-August, the Fayetteville Observer reported that crews were removing about 12 layers of asphalt to deal with the settlement and getting ready to widen the shoulders.
The closed stretch runs from the All American Gate to Zabitosky Road, in both directions. Gruber Road has its own detour at the freeway overpass.
Where the traffic went
Before the closure, ABC11 reported an estimated 65,000 to 80,000 vehicles entering Fort Bragg every day. All of that now has to fit through the gates that are still open. The installation added staff at the other gates and named the ones it expects to absorb the shift.
| Side of post | Gates expected to pick up traffic | What's different now |
|---|---|---|
| South | Yadkin Road, Rock Merritt Avenue, Canopy Lane | Canopy Lane is open 24/7 |
| North | Honeycutt Road, R. Miller Street, Butner Road | Added staffing |
Canopy Lane is the gate with a new job. It stays open around the clock, and from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m., while the All American Visitor Control Center is closed, visitors can get a one-day pass right at Canopy Lane. At night, then, pass and entry are back in one place. By day they are split again.
If you bookmarked the installation's Access Control page years ago, look at the date. That page still says non-DoD visitors use the All American access point for passes from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. The newer Roads update sends overnight visitors to Canopy Lane, and that is the instruction that matches a closed gate.
The off-post roads leading to those gates are feeling it too. Before the closure, Stephen Turner, a veteran who opened 100 Grand Barbershop 2 on Yadkin Road in 2019, told ABC11 he expected the shift to bring more visibility and more business.
"We have to adjust our schedule. I mean, but, you know, just like being in the military, we have to improvise, adapt, and overcome."
That is how Turner described it to ABC11. NCDOT spokesperson Andrew Barksdale said in the same report that people "will have to adjust and find new routes to their commute."
Hosting a guest under the new map
Because the pass and the gate are now separate stops, the old habit of meeting a guest at the Visitor Center and driving straight through no longer works. Here's a sequence that fits how the installation describes access today.
- Request the pass online first. The installation calls the online visitor pass the most convenient route for anyone without a DoW ID, and it's on the Fort Bragg home page. The online process asks for U.S. citizenship, a REAL ID-compliant state ID and a mobile phone. Every non-DoD visitor needs a valid reason and goes through security vetting.
- If you need the Visitor Center, go during its hours. It's open 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day. Once you leave, plan to drive to one of the open gates.
- Late arrivals go to Canopy Lane. Between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m., the one-day pass and the entry both happen there.
- Check the gate before you leave the house. The My Army Post App, or MAPA, now shows live traffic at the gates you pick, and the installation says it will post congestion suggestions on social media and through MAPA push notifications at busy times.
Contractors and deliveries
If your guest is really a vendor hauling goods or equipment, a different office handles it. Commercial vendors and contractors use the Truck Plaza Visitor Control Center at Knox Gate, which is open 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. on weekends. Personnel-only vehicles still use the All American Visitor Control Center.
November, planned around the gates
Now apply that split to the next few weeks. Some of the season's best-known events need the full pass-and-gate routine, and some are entirely off post.
The 30th Annual Fort Bragg 10-Miler, Saturday, Nov. 7. The race is open to the general public and starts at 8 a.m. Runners must finish by 11 a.m., and the route closes at 6 a.m. Fort Bragg MWR describes the start as the top of Hedrick Stadium in one spot and as Long Street across from Hedrick Stadium in its FAQ. The route map is still listed as coming soon. Civilian runners without a DoW ID need a visitor pass, and MWR recommends applying online 24 hours ahead. Registration closes Nov. 6 at 7 p.m. A 6 a.m. road closure on a Saturday morning also matters if you aren't running, since you may be driving through the area.
The Field of Honor at the Airborne & Special Operations Museum, through Nov. 12. The flag display covers the museum's Parade Field at 100 Bragg Blvd in downtown Fayetteville, and it runs until 4 p.m. on Nov. 12. It's off post, so no gate is involved. It's an easy outing for an out-of-town guest the afternoon they arrive, while their pass request is still processing.
The 59th Annual Holly Day Fair, Nov. 5 to 8. Four days of holiday shopping at the Crown Expo, plus ticketed events including Super Shopper, Sip & Shop and Ladies Night Out. This one is off post too.
Looking ahead to December, Fort Bragg's Christmas Tree Lighting is Dec. 4 from 4 to 8 p.m. at Main Post Parade Field. It's free, but it's limited to DoW ID cardholders and their guests, not the general public. A guest who wants to go comes in with a sponsor, through whichever gate that sponsor uses now.
All of this assumes the current gate setup, and the installation has said shorter road closures will be posted on its Roads page as they come up. The 24-month window is the official estimate, not a set reopening date. NCDOT and Fort Bragg's Department of Public Works said they would watch conditions and adjust traffic signals as needed once the detour began. So the gate you use in November may not be the one you use next spring.
If you're weighing a home in north Cumberland County or Linden and want to talk through how the current gate map fits your daily drive, Ace Development Group can walk through it with you. Schedule a consultation with Ace, and start your build or tour a home today.
