The City of Fayetteville and the North Carolina State Department of Transportation have agreed to construct nearly two miles of sidewalks along Owen Drive. Sidewalks will be built from Eastern Boulevard (US301) to the
All American Expressway at Old Owen Drive. 

The $549,000.00 project won’t get underway until the summer of 2017, according to the N.C. Department of Transportation, but it has been funded. Eighty percent of the funds are provided by the federal government. The city will pay the other 20 percent or $112,000.00. 

“This will be a great project to improve pedestrian connectivity along one of the highest travelled corridors in the city,” said Fayetteville Traffic Engineer Lee Jernigan. 

Construction is estimated to take from six to eight months.

The 1.8 miles of sidewalks will be constructed along the east side of Owen Drive. That’s the side the ABC Store and Briarwood Apartments are located on. Fayetteville Area System of Transit patrons will also benefit. 

Eight bus stop pads will be built along the route. Some of them will be mini-projects in and of themselves. Narrow berms along some portions of the shoulder of the highway in the vicinity of Briarwood have served as bus stops. They are extremely dangerous because the berms are adjacent to steep drainage ditches. Those areas will require a major buildup for the walkway. Some of the bus stops may have to be relocated in order to better accommodate patrons, Jernigan said. 

“This is part of the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s safety improvement project,” Jernigan noted.