Cornelius, Davidson mayors flying to Texas, to see toll lanes project

The mayors of Davidson and Cornelius are flying to Texas this week to see toll lanes that were built and managed by the same company adding Interstate 77 toll lanes from Charlotte to Mooresville.

Cornelius Mayor Chuck Travis said he and Davidson Mayor John Woods will be joined on the trip to Dallas by Walt Gray, chief deputy secretary of the N.C. Department of Transportation, and Beau Memory, executive director of the N.C. Turnpike Authority.

While in Dallas, the group will meet with Cintra officials and local Chamber of Commerce leaders, elected officials and business owners regarding the 17-mile LBJ Express project. “This is a fact-finding mission for information sharing and forecasting that we can report back to our community,” Travis said.

The trip has been planned for several months, Travis said, and the mayors are paying for their own travel. He said “no expenses will be paid by taxpayers’ dollars or Cintra,” the Spain-based contractor building and managing the I-77 lanes.

“John and I will pay for all of our travel costs individually, and we will have records to share if requested,” Travis said in a news release.

Mooresville Mayor Miles Atkins originally planned to go on the trip, but changed his mind.

“We need a solution for the congestion on I-77. We need to understand what are the true and available options,” Atkins said in an email to the Observer. “However, given the current and heightened debate over this issue I feel in fairness to the citizens I represent, this is a trip I should not take because it could have the appearance of a conflict. I will continue to seek out the facts surrounding the I-77 project options,” Atkins said.

Work on the I-77 lanes started in north Mecklenburg on Monday. The 26-mile project from the Brookshire Freeway in Charlotte to exit 36 in Mooresville is expected to open in 2018.

Travis said he looks forward to participating in an I-77 Summit that state Rep. Charles Jeter, R-Huntersville, and state Sen. Jeff Tarte, R-Cornelius, will hold in Cornelius on Monday.

“My position is simple, our interstate is broken and must be fixed,” Travis said.

But canceling the contract “will have significant financial penalties as well as timing issues that will impact our region for years to come,” he said. “I hope the summit will provide the opportunity to fully explore and understand these concerns.”

This story was originally published November 17, 2015 at 1:00 PM with the headline "Cornelius, Davidson mayors flying to Texas, to see toll lanes project."