The two-year, $28 million plan will include 11 checkpoints like the one at Butner Road. Butner Road is expected to be one of the more restrictive checkpoints. It will be open five days a week and 16 hours a day. Vehicles must have decals to move through checkpoints.
"I'm a soldier. I'm in uniform and I still get my vehicle checked, so being a soldier, they don't give anyone no bypasses," Spc. Joseph Simmons said.
Crews also plan to have a 8-foot-tall barbed-wire fence that will continue for 25 miles around post, connecting with Pope Air Force Base and Simmons Army Airfield. The fence is designed to stop a vehicle carrying explosives.
"[There are] lots of changes, especially since 9-11," Fort Bragg employee Glen Celcer said. "That's the biggest thing because this wasn't even guarded at all until 9-11. You didn't have to go through security. And now, you've got to go through quite a bit of security."
Army officials said they have wanted the security changes for a long time. The firing ranges and drop zones on post are not expected to be affected by the construction. Work is set to begin Monday.
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