Originally built in the 1940s, Fort Liberty officials said their roads could no longer serve the more than 250,000 people now commuting on them every day. These road conditions have left drivers contending with things such as potholes and major traffic jams.
Fort Liberty said improving its roads is a major priority, and that the installation has been gathering feedback from its military families.
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"We haven't seen much improvement or modernization over time and we're trying to improve the quality of our road work," said Lawrence Pico, the deputy director of Fort Liberty's Directorate of Public Works.
As a result, Fort Liberty says it partnered with the NCDOT to improve the installation's roads for the next decade. Now the project is in full swing, and Fort Liberty said it's investing $10 to $20 million of its own funds each year for the department to fix its roads.
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"We wanted to take advantage of their expertise with road work as well as realize some cost savings going through their program," said Pico with Fort Liberty's DPW.
Fort Liberty said it's saving them 40 percent to 60 percent of what this would have cost using other options.
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"We estimate we get about $0.60 to the dollar per mile working through NCDOT, which just means that we're able to do more roadwork per year," Pico said.
The NCDOT said it's possible other state departments of transportation could duplicate this partnership with other military bases nationwide based on the results at Fort Liberty.
"No matter if you're in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, or whatever, we all know how to build roads," said Jason Salisbury, a Division 6 construction engineer at the NCDOT. "And so if they can utilize that expertise in their local, in their local states, I think it'd be great."