Relief for commuters looms on the horizon

In the next 18 months, a flurry of highway construction will begin in the Charlotte area that will transform commuting and getting around in general.

The N.C. Department of Transportation will be awarding roughly $400 million in highway contracts in 2012 and 2013. Barry Moose, the N.C. Department of Transportation engineer who oversees the Charlotte region, said the amount of projects is unprecedented.

"I have never had anything back-to-back-to-back like this," Moose said. "As a matter of fact, the federal highway administrator in Washington is keeping an eye on this. It's significant enough."

There are three main highway projects that will soon be under way:

Interstate 85 in Cabarrus County will be widened from four lanes to eight. Construction will start near the interchange with Interstate 485 and will continue to N.C. 73. That's scheduled to be finished in November 2013.

Interstate 485 in south Charlotte will be widened from four lanes to six, from Interstate 77 to Johnston Road. The state plans to issue a design-build contract in February 2012, and construction could be finished in 2015. That stretch of highway carries 120,000 cars a day, and is the most congested segment of interstate in the Charlotte region.

The last segment of the outerbelt will be finished in the spring of 2014. Currently I-485 is about three-quarters finished, and has been under construction for roughly 25 years. The last segment - to be built in northeast Mecklenburg - will connect I-85 with N.C. 115 south of Huntersville.

When those projects are finished, commuting times will be slashed for thousands of residents.

The DOT is planning to convert the carpool lane on I-77 in north Mecklenburg into a so-called HOT lane, which stands for high occupancy vehicle toll lane. HOT lanes allow any driver to pay a toll for a faster commute.

The more traffic there is, the higher the toll. People with more than one person in the car would still be able to drive in the HOT for free. That project could begin in four years.

In addition, the state is planning to build toll roads in Union County and Gaston County. Both roads would cost nearly $2 billion combined.

And construction on Independence Boulevard will begin next year. The state is slowly widening U.S. 74 into an expressway, and the DOT will convert a section of the highway from Albemarle Road to Conference Drive.

Changes for public transportation

Charlotte also has ambitious plans for public transportation.

The city is planning to build a small 1.5-mile streetcar line from uptown's Time Warner Cable Arena to Presbyterian Hospital, which could open in 2014 or 2015. And the Charlotte Area Transit System is moving forward with plans to expand the Lynx Blue Line from uptown to UNC-Charlotte.

That project - which will cost upwards of $900 million - needs the federal government to pay for at least half of construction costs, and the state to pay for 25 percent. CATS is hoping to get approval from the Federal Transit Administration in December 2012.

If the FTA green-lights the project, the extension could open in 2016 or 2017.

"We will be sending paperwork to the FTA soon," said Olaf Kinard, director of marketing for CATS.

The rail project was originally slated to end at the outerbelt, with a large park-and-ride lot. But to cut costs, the rail line will only go to UNCC.