Share
The environmental impact statement for the Monroe Connector/Bypass says the new expressway won't have any effect on the region's poor air quality, and that it won't cause people to drive more miles.
But an environmental group and city of Charlotte transportation officials believe that's not true, and that the planned toll road would generate more air pollution and contribute to the region's ozone problem.
The Monroe Connector/Bypass is a 21-mile toll road that would parallel the existing U.S. 74, and offer motorists a much faster way to cross Union County. Apart from the outerbelt, it would be the most significant Charlotte-area highway project in decades.
The N.C. Turnpike Authority says the highway won't make the region's air worse. It also says that building the highway would cause people to drive fewer miles than if it weren't built. If people are driving fewer miles, their cars would likely be emitting fewer ozone-causing pollutants.
Thomas Gremillion of the Southern Environmental Law Center said the projection of lower vehicle-miles traveled, or VMT, is “absurd.”
The Mecklenburg Union Metropolitan Planning Organization also has questioned those projections. In a June 15 letter to the N.C. Turnpike Authority, MUMPO questioned how the new highway would cause people to drive fewer miles.
It predicted that the bypass would produce higher emissions of pollutants such as nitrogen oxides because people will drive faster on the new highway. Vehicles driving 60 mph emit more ozone-forming pollutants than cars driving 35 mph. In addition, MUMPO predicted the bypass would spark new development, farther from Charlotte, causing people to drive more miles.
“With that growth, additional (vehicle miles traveled) may be generated on the bypass, and thus additional emissions,” the letter said.
Charlotte planners are struggling to show the federal government that their road-building plans won't make the air worse. The American Lung Association this year said Charlotte had the nation's eighth-worst ozone problem.
Ground-level ozone is formed when nitrogen oxides and other pollutants are cooked by sunlight. Ozone can cause breathing problems, and can affect children, the elderly and asthmatics.
Charlotte must show the Environmental Protection Agency by next spring that its long-range transportation plan won't produce more ozone-forming pollutants than if the projects weren't built.
The Charlotte Department of Transportation believes that if the Monroe Connector/Bypass is built, it would generate additional ozone-forming pollutants. It must then show that another transportation project – perhaps transit – would offset those increases.
“The point of the letter is for people to understand the air-quality emissions associated with travel on a large, new roadway,” said Norm Steinman, a planner with the Charlotte Department of Transportation.
The N.C. Turnpike Authority said its environmental documents are correct. The new toll road won't increase vehicle miles traveled because people would have a direct route, said Jennifer Harris, an engineer with the authority.
She said some people today are driving out of their way to avoid stop-and-go traffic on U.S. 74.
“People will be able to make direct trips from Point A to Point B,” Harris said. “Today, they are avoiding congested routes. When you build this new road, people won't be driving all the way to N.C. 218.”
The consultant, HNTB, said that if the toll road is built, vehicle miles traveled in the Charlotte region would be 121.2 million miles in 2035. If the toll road isn't built, miles traveled would be slightly higher, at 121.3 million miles.
Gremillion of the Southern Environmental Law Center said he's surprised the Turnpike Authority would show its project would show a decline in driving. The project is dependent on convincing investors to buy bonds to pay for much of the estimated $760 million construction cost.
“It just seems absurd that building a road would make people drive less,” Gremillion said. “It's nice to see the planners in Charlotte have recognized that, too.”
The Turnpike Authority hopes to open the toll road in 2013.
