Toll lanes planned for wider I-77 from Charlotte to York County
The N.C. Department of Transportation reaffirmed its commitment to toll lanes Thursday, with a 10-year plan including them in the widening of three key Charlotte projects.
The plan would include express toll lanes on the widening of I-485 from Rea Road to U.S. 74, Interstate 77 from uptown to the South Carolina line and U.S. 74 from uptown to Matthews.
The lanes would require motorists to pay a toll in return for a guaranteed speed of 45 mph. The existing free lanes would remain.
The state is already moving forward with a plan to build toll lanes on I-77 in north Mecklenburg, despite intense opposition from some residents.
That plan would allow motorists to use the toll lanes for free if they have three or more passengers. It’s unclear whether the three new projects would allow free use for carpools.
The most ambitious of the projects – rebuilding I-77 in south Charlotte – is scheduled to begin in 2024. That’s the first time the state has committed to a start date for the project. The I-485 widening is scheduled to start in 2018. Widening and improving U.S. 74 would start in 2022.
One notable project that’s absent from the 10-year list is the proposed Garden Parkway in Gaston County, which would run from Charlotte Douglas International Airport, across the Catawba River and across south Gaston. The controversial toll road has been struggling to gain wide support and funding. Not being included on the 10-year plan further diminishes the likelihood the highway will be built.
Charlotte City Council member David Howard, who is vice chairman of the council’s transportation committee, said he doesn’t think the state will have to look exclusively to toll roads in the future.
“When you look at metro areas across the country, toll lanes are one of the tools,” Howard said. “But it’s not the only tool. There is more bus rapid transit, and more rapid transit overall.”
Gov. Pat McCrory has made it a priority to change how the state funds transportation projects.
He led a push to scrap the 1989 Equity Formula, which was used to determine how transportation dollars were doled out. McCrory, as Charlotte’s mayor, had complained that formula favored rural areas at the expense of cities.
McCrory said the old formula was one “in which, frankly, roads and transportation wasn’t always built based on congestion or safety or economic development. Sometimes it was based on politics.”
The new transportation formula, known as Strategic Transportation Investments, emphasizes priorities such as congestion relief, safety and economic development. It has generally been praised by Charlotte leaders as bringing more money to the region.
It’s possible Thursday’s list could be shuffled, however. Earlier this year, McCrory announced a plan to borrow more than $1 billion to jump-start a number of highway projects.
A draft list of possible projects included some rural projects that had scored poorly on North Carolina’s new formula; however, DOT has backed off that draft list of projects, saying nothing has been decided.
This story was originally published December 4, 2014 at 11:26 PM.