CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. - Patrons aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, often struggle with traffic and fight to enter the base in the morning and exit it in the evening. Thousands of commuting patrons, single-lane roads and a limited number of gates play a part in the congestion.
To help improve the flow of traffic, base officials in charge of construction on MCB Camp Lejeune are working on widening Brewster Boulevard between Holcomb Boulevard and Charles Street. The road will change from a two-lane undivided road to a four-lane divided road.
Base officials have been working on the project for more than a year, relocating power poles and other utilities along with installing storm water drainage pipes. Completion of the utility work is scheduled for late spring, according to Cmdr. Marc Delao, officer in charge of construction with MCB Camp Lejeune, Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Marine Corps Installations East. Actual paving and road widening on Brewster Boulevard will start late spring and go through the summer and fall of 2012.
Since the start of construction, jogging trails along Brewster Boulevard have been closed. Base officials ask patrons to remain off of the trails until construction is complete and the trails have re-opened.
“There is an existing jogging trail that has been shut down to both joggers and [cyclist] because of safety concerns during construction,” said Delao. “But this project builds a new and improved trail that residents can look forward to using.”
The roadwork on Brewster Boulevard is part of a larger project which includes the construction of a new gate off of Highway 24 near MCB Camp Lejeune’s Tarawa Terrace housing area and a new road that runs up to the Wallace Creek Regimental area intersecting with Holcomb Boulevard and Sneads Ferry Road. This new road and entryway into Camp Lejeune will include an overpass over Brewster Boulevard in the vicinity of Charles Street.
“It’s a very detailed project,” said Delao. “We have a series of drainage pipes that go under the existing lanes of Brewster Boulevard. To [install] those, we have to reduce [Brewster Boulevard] to one lane. That work is currently being done and will continue through the spring.”
Base officials stated that completion of the project will play a part in alleviating congested traffic, and it will improve more after the completion of the bridge, the gate from Tarawa Terrace housing area, and construction of the new entry road down to the Wallace Creek area.