CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — North Carolina Department of Transportation leaders met with Mecklenburg County commissioners for a budget public policy meeting Tuesday afternoon to talk about widening the southern section of Interstate 77 and adding toll lanes in both directions to the South Carolina line.
The area of I-77 is known for traffic backups, but NCDOT says crash rates for the section of I-77 are two and a half times higher than the state average.
I-77 is a major gateway around Charlotte.
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“Anywhere I go, generally I’m hopping on 77,” said Patrick Sharp, a commercial and HOA accounts manager with Team Pest USA.
Sharp says the interstate can be a pest, and he should know.
He fights the insect-kind every day as he travels on I-77 for work.
“You’re always going to expect some traffic on 77, that’s just kind of how I go about my day,” said Sharp.
For years, the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization has been trying to figure out how to relieve congestion on the southern section of I-77.
They asked NCDOT to look at options.
The proposal is for widening I-77 and adding two toll lanes in each direction north and southbound for eleven miles from where the tolls stop now right at I-277 and extending those to the South Carolina line.
Sharp says that could get costly for drivers.
“Problem is there isn’t a set price to use the tolls, it’s ever-changing, it’s going to be more expensive when the traffic’s heavier,” said Sharp.
NCDOT says just adding lanes without tolls only provides short-term relief and unreliable travel times because as the area grows, it just returns to the same congestion levels.
This is a $3.7 billion total project, and the state only has $600 million to spend on it, so they say the only way to keep it going is to do a public-private partnership.
“Each year of delay for this project, based on inflationary assumptions and the current cost estimate, the cost of the project would increase by $100 million a year,” said Carly Swanson, Director of Innovative Delivery with NCDOT.
Sharp isn’t buying it. He doesn’t think the tolls will solve the major issue.
“The main problem I see on 77 south of Charlotte is people entering on on-ramps, that’s what causing a lot of congestion and the slowdowns,” said Sharp.
If local transportation officials approve the public-private partnership, NCDOT did not give us an estimated start date of when toll lane construction could begin, but the CRTPO is set to meet on Oct. 16 to decide whether they’ll move forward with the project.
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Publish date : 2024-09-24 12:21:00
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