Battle rages over I-77 widening at Lake Norman

It was 2005 when Kurt Naas first got stuck in congestion on Interstate 77. He’d flown into Charlotte for a job interview, and as he drove north toward Davidson, traffic slowed to a crawl. Surely, he thought, this road will be widened soon.

Nearly a decade later, that congested Huntersville-to-Davidson stretch is finally scheduled to get new lanes, but not the kind Naas wanted. The corridor is part of North Carolina’s first “managed lanes” project, a combination of toll and high-occupancy lanes that will run 26 miles, from Charlotte to Mooresville. Naas, founder of the opposition group Widen I-77, is the project’s highest-profile opponent.

For two years, Naas has marshaled facts, figures and PowerPoint slides. He has predicted that tolls could cost $20 or more for a Charlotte-to-Mooresville round-trip and warned that commuters unwilling or unable to pay will be doomed to congestion.

North Carolina has already signed a contract with Cintra, the Spanish company that will operate the lanes, and construction could begin by spring. So chances of stopping the project appear slim.

But Naas’s opposition has resonated with Lake Norman residents. Many believe their narrow stretch of I-77 should have been widened with regular lanes years ago. But state transportation rules seem stacked against the project. Though the Huntersville-to-Davidson corridor is one of North Carolina’s most congested stretches, it never qualified for widening because the funding formula favored building new highways over relieving congestion on existing ones.

When the I-77 Managed Lane Project breaks ground, it will be the first time the state has outsourced operation of a highway. Cintra, a global infrastructure company, is shouldering most of the project’s $655 million costs. For 50 years, it will run the lanes, maintain them and get most of the toll revenue. Depending on the project’s success, it could become a template for similar widenings, including on I-77 south of Charlotte.

It joins a growing number of managed lanes operating or planned across the nation. The lanes often generate citizen opposition – almost all tolls do – but in an era of insufficient highway funding, they’re seen, as one North Carolinalegislator put it, as the least bad answer.

The biggest reason for managed lanes, advocates say, is that North Carolina can’t afford to build the roads it needs. Congress hasn’t raised the gas tax since 1993, North Carolina’s highway taxes aren’t keeping pace and fuel-efficient cars are generating less revenue. There’s also a growing consensus that North Carolina needs transportation alternatives. New roads in booming areas attract more growth, and before long, there’s new congestion. It’s an unsustainable cycle, experts say.

Widen I-77’s opposition hasn’t endeared Naas to the project’s supporters. They accuse the group of peddling misinformation and worst-case scenarios, quoting high toll prices that may never materialize, for instance. They say toll opponents don’t understand that simply adding a lane in a growing area is a short-term fix. Widen the road, and people will fill it.

Naas says his group strives to be accurate. He can’t understand why more elected officials in Lake Norman haven’t fought a project their constituents don’t want. “We would welcome a debate on the facts,” he says, “and let the public decide.”

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Why no widening?

One thing about which everyone can agree: Traffic is often terrible on I-77 north of Charlotte. The section that runs from Huntersville to Davidson, at Exit 30, is the narrowest in Mecklenburg County, the only one that remains four lanes. It’s built for about 72,000 cars a day. In 2013, most of the stretch carried more than 90,000, according to the N.C. DOT.

Commuters will tell you that periods of congestion are lasting longer, and traffic sometimes backs up in both directions at once. Friday afternoons tend to be the worst. Many people adjust schedules accordingly. After 3:30 p.m., “I stay in,” says Dan Boone, a retiree who lives in Huntersville.

It’s hard to envision Lake Norman without I-77, but, in fact, that stretch of interstate isn’t even 40 years old. On Dec. 31, 1975, Reames Road to Davidson became the county’s last piece of I-77 to open. Back then, not many people commuted from North Mecklenburg to Charlotte. Driving was a breeze.

Then came decades of growth. Between 2000 and 2013, the combined population of the four towns feeding into that corridor – Huntersville, Cornelius, Davidson and Mooresville – nearly doubled, from about 65,000 to 124,000. In addition, the state added exits, which slow traffic. The latest: Mooresville’s Exits 31 and 35.

In the mid-2000s, the state eased the I-77 congestion north of uptown Charlotte by adding a regular lane and North Carolina’s first HOV lane. To the dismay of Lake Norman residents, however, the widening stopped at Huntersville. Heading north, four lanes shrunk to two, and a rush-hour bottleneck became common.

Naas, 52, came to know that bottleneck well, after he, his wife, and son moved from Reno in 2005 and settled in Cornelius. In 2007, he bought a manufacturing business off the LaSalle Street exit and began commuting to Charlotte. Like many Lake Norman residents, he wondered: Why hadn’t the state widened the highway all the way to Davidson?

Serving on Cornelius’s Transportation Advisory Board, he learned the short answer: not enough money. He also got the longer explanation: That corridor didn’t rank highly enough on funding priority lists, largely because those priorities didn’t care much about congestion.

Guiding priorities was the Highway Equity Formula, the state rules that until recently governed transportation funding. The legislature created the formula in 1989 when it ramped up highway funding with new taxes. The formula reflected the rural priorities of most legislators. Goals included providing a four-lane road within 10 miles of 90 percent of North Carolina’s population, often in rural areas. A major objective was to spur economic development in depressed areas.

For years, urban leaders complained that the formula shortchanged their cities. Charlotte-area drivers who traveled spacious highways in other parts of the state noticed this, too. For example, why did motorists need about a dozen miles of eight-lane highway on Interstate 85 between Salisbury and Greensboro? That stretch has twice the lanes of I-77 between Huntersville and Davidson, but carries less traffic, according to the DOT.

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Managed lanes:

Better than nothing

By the mid-2000s, Charlotte-area transportation officials were in agreement: To ease congestion, they needed an alternative to traditional funding. Parsons Brinckerhoff consultants were hired to identify possible managed-lane projects.

The first managed lanes, also called HOT lanes, opened in California in the 1990s, made possible with technology that allowed operators to change toll prices and charge drivers electronically. There are now 24 managed lanes projects nationally.

Opponents have dubbed them “Lexus lanes,” complaining that only wealthier drivers can use them regularly. So far, the results of research into equity questions are mixed. But with voters adamant against tax increases, many elected officials see managed lanes as preferable to no solution.

In 2009, Parsons Brinckerhoff’s study concluded that I-77 north of uptown was the best candidate for managed lanes. For one thing, there was already a high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane from uptown to I-485 that could be turned into a managed lane. Also, the highway was plenty congested. You need congestion to get people to pay to use an optional toll lane.

In 2011, when the state DOT first floated a managed-lane plan, it was a more modest proposal: one managed lane each way, uptown to Cornelius (Exit 28). Projected costs were $65 million, and the state, not a private company, would build it, operate it and collect the tolls.

Bill Coxe, Huntersville’s transportation planner, could see the wisdom. The nation’s road-building strategy has always been to build, he says, and then “each of us consumes to our own benefit until the asset is gone, and then we say we need more.”

But managed lanes are designed not to clog. Prices rise and fall as needed to ensure that traffic in the lane keeps moving.

Drivers never have to use the lanes. But if you’re trying to make a flight or a meeting, they can be a godsend, advocates say. They provide certainty. On I-77, they’ll be free if you take a bus or carpool with at least three people. (That’s an increase from the two-person minimum now required for I-77’s HOV lane.)

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The project grows

By late 2012, the proposed I-77 Managed Lanes Project was no longer relatively small or state-run. DOT officials decided they needed a private operator to help finance the project, DOT Chief of Staff Bobby Lewis says. And they realized that if the lanes stopped at Exit 28 in Cornelius, they’d create a new bottleneck. They opted for more lanes and more miles.

The I-77 project differs from most of the nation’s other managed lanes in a couple of ways. For one thing, it will be privately operated, by Cintra. Existing projects are mostly public, though more private projects are being planned, says David Ungemah, Parsons Brinkerhoff’s national managed lanes director. Ungemah adds that I-77 is one of just a few projects where the state allows the vendor to set tolls.

Even among some managed-lane supporters, the 50-year partnership has raised qualms. Though the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization endorsed the managed lanes in 2013, the agency expressed concerns in an analysis about “turning over a significant part of infrastructure to a private company for 50 years,” says Robert Cook, the group’s secretary.

A 2012 U.S. Government Accountability Office report also has outlined possible problems with private partnerships. A private operator “seeking to maximize revenue could in theory charge a higher toll and make more money off of fewer paying vehicles,” the report says.

But Lewis points out that using a vendor greatly reduces the amount the state has to spend. The project is much larger than anything the state could build without private money. “This is a 26-mile transportation solution to this area that will last 50 years,” he says.

If the state had stuck with its first smaller project, Naas says he might not be spearheading opposition. But when the project expanded and a company entered the picture, his ire rose. In October 2012, he wrote “an open letter to area I-77 drivers” in Huntersville’s Herald Weekly.

“There hasn’t been a single improvement in north-south roads through Lake Norman since I-77 was built nearly 40 years ago. In the meantime, every other stretch of interstate in Mecklenburg County has been widened at least once,” he wrote. “We in the Lake Norman area are way overdue for our turn.”

Naas closed by asking those who agreed to email him. Widen I-77 was born in November 2012. Today, more than 3,100 people have liked the group’s Facebook page.

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How much will tolls cost?

His opponents might consider him a rabble-rouser, but stylewise, Naas is an efficient, suit-jacketed engineer. In the evenings, while some people watch “Dancing With the Stars,” he analyzes transportation data. To accompany his anti-toll presentations, he creates sophisticated PowerPoint slides that include footnotes documenting his sources.

Naas, who grew up in San Diego, holds an undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering and two Northwestern University master’s degrees – in business and engineering management. In past positions, he has designed rockets for General Dynamics Space Systems and done business consulting.

Bill Russell, who heads the Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce, credits Naas for raising awareness “that we really need to be looking at this and not buying into things we were told.” The chamber supports the managed-lane project, though Russell faults the N.C. DOT for “doing a terrible job communicating their message.” He says he had expected the public to know more details by now – such as the cost of tolls.

Naas’ PowerPoint slides are loaded with details. During a recent anti-toll meeting, on a September evening at Mooresville’s Charles Mack Citizen Center, 150 people packed a room as Naas described how Cintra’s managed lanes will work.

“Basically, what the company is selling is a guaranteed minimum speed,” he told the audience. To keep the managed lanes flowing, tolls rise as lane usage increases, ensuring that overcrowding doesn’t slow traffic.

“So you see a divergence between what the private company wants, which is lots of congestion and high tolls, and what’s in the public interest, which is getting traffic moving and no tolls,” he said.

Naas has long predicted that tolls could be costly, and his case gained credibility in June. That’s when Widen I-77’s Freedom of Information Act request yielded a 2012 state study estimating that tolls during peak congestion could cost $20 for a Mooresville-to-Charlotte round-trip. State officials disavowed the study, saying it was outdated and that most motorists wouldn’t take the lanes for the entire trip. They said tolls will be much lower.

But the truth is that the state doesn’t know what the tolls will be. It’s Cintra, not the state, that will set prices. In other states, rush-hour toll prices can run several dollars for a one-way trip. On a seven-mile stretch of I-95 in Miami-Dade County, for instance, the minimum one-way toll is 50 cents, but the maximum, charged during peak congestion, is $10.50.

At the Mooresville presentation, Naas argued, as he always does, that the state could build a new regular lane from Huntersville to Mooresville for not much more than the $88 million in public money it’s kicking in for the managed-lane project.

Audience members were with him. They raised hands, pointing out problems they envisioned with managed lanes. They asked how they could help.

Naas urged them to write the governor, to donate to Widen I-77 to pay for publicity and possible legal fees. Time, he warned, is short.

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Naas isn’t giving up

Last year, at Gov. Pat McCrory’s urging, the legislature dumped the Highway Equity Formula. Its replacement, the Strategic Transportation Investments formula, gives weight to relieving congestion and has been touted as a data-driven way to take the politics out of road projects. Charlotte’s regional transportation planning body also revamped its formula, which once ranked the I-77 widening a dismal 92 out of more than 300 projects. Again, congestion relief became a higher priority.

These changes would have been great news for advocates of widening I-77 because that project would rank much higher under this new criteria. But state officials say this is a moot point: The managed-lane project is already in the works.

And even if it wasn’t, DOT officials say, I-77 south of Charlotte has heavier traffic and more congestion than the north segment. That project would take precedence. Once again, the north corridor would have to wait years for widening.

The I-77 Managed Lane Project, which the N.C. DOT describes as “the key to unlocking congestion along the I-77 corridor,” is supposed to open in 2018.

Until then, many opponents pledge to vote against politicians who’ve supported the managed lanes. Some swear they’ll never pay a dime in tolls.

But by 2018, who knows? Parson Brinckerhoff’s Ungemah says opposition to such projects usually dissipates after lanes open, initial difficulties smooth out and drivers’ worst fears aren’t realized.

Maybe Lake Norman drivers will decide it’s worth paying. Maybe bus ridership and off-peak commuting will rise. Opening managed lanes often eases congestion in regular lanes. Of course, as long as Lake Norman keeps growing, congestion will return.

Naas, who says he has never been an activist until now, obviously has a talent for it. Managed lanes may be inevitable, but Widen I-77 has communicated its anti-toll message well.

He has no interest in public office, however. “Ha!” he wrote in an email response to the question. He says he took on managed lanes because leaders weren’t asking hard questions. “That’s what ruffles my feathers,” he says.

He isn’t giving up. He has pored over the new funding criteria, trying to find a way to convince – or force – state leaders to change their minds. Unless the project is halted, he says, “it’s a failure of representative government.”

One new lane – that’s all Naas wants. He’d be OK with a managed lane, he says, if the state also built a regular one.

Managed lanes or no, you probably won’t see Kurt Naas stuck in I-77 traffic. Last year, fed up with slow commutes, he moved his business from Charlotte to Concord. Now he drives back roads to work.

This story was originally published October 4, 2014 at 8:04 PM with the headline "Battle rages over I-77 widening at Lake Norman."