Regional planning group approves toll lanes

The Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization voted Wednesday to continue supporting toll lanes, including a controversial project on Interstate 77 that has divided the region.

Toll-lane opponents have pledged to keep fighting the project, which is scheduled to open in 2019. But with an opposition group having already lost its legal challenge, Wednesday’s vote allows the N.C. Department of Transportation to move forward with the toll lanes.

The planning organization voted to support toll lanes in a weighted vote of 50-12. Thirty-one of those votes came from the city of Charlotte’s one voting member.

But the toll lanes were also supported by a straight show of hands. The CRTPO representatives of local governments voted 14-7 in favor of toll lanes.

Voting no were Davidson, Cornelius, Huntersville and Pineville, and Mecklenburg, Union and Iredell counties.

With opposition mounting to the toll lanes, Gov. Pat McCrory asked the organization late last year to take a new vote on the toll lanes planned for I-77, I-485 and U.S. 74.

N.C. DOT said an attempt to vote against I-77 could be interpreted as a rejection of all toll lanes, causing the state to stop planning work on the other toll lane projects. The state had also said penalties for canceling the $650 million contract could reach $300 million.

Opponents said that estimate was absurdly high. But the $300 million estimate – and the possibility that Charlotte might have to pay the penalty – helped convince several elected officials to stay the course.

At Wednesday’s CRTPO meeting, Ned Curran, DOT board chair, said the benefit to toll lanes is a “consistent” travel time to and from Charlotte. After paying a toll, Curran said, motorists would be guaranteed a speed of at least 45 mph.

Danny Pleasant of the Charlotte Department of Transportation said that scrapping toll lanes and starting over with free lanes could mean no construction until 2025.

But some CRTPO members still voted against toll lanes.

Iredell County’s representative, Ken Robertson, pressed Pleasant about the impact new toll lanes would have on the speed of vehicles in the free lanes. Critics have said the toll lanes won’t divert enough cars to improve traffic flow for people who choose not to pay a toll.

“What I’m looking for is the line that shows the speeds in the general-purpose lanes,” Robertson said about a city presentation that touted the benefits of toll lanes.

Davidson’s representative, Brian Jenest, said he initially supported toll lanes for I-77.

“I have been a staunch supporter of managed lanes,” he said.

But he said the I-77 contract with Cintra, the developer, could “poison the (other toll lane projects).”

He said north Mecklenburg residents began opposing the project after they learned more about it, such as a provision in the contract that makes it difficult for DOT to add new free lanes to I-77 for 50 years. Jenest said the project had “morphed into a monster.”

Jenest said the region needed to “work together.” That sentiment was echoed by Charlotte’s representative, Vi Lyles, who said Charlotte council members understood the region’s concerns about the project.

With Charlotte holding nearly half of CRTPO’s weighted votes, Lyles was the key vote at Wednesday’s meeting. Last week, City Council voted 7-4 to direct Lyles to continue supporting the toll lanes.

But the I-77 project may have created a rift between Charlotte and the north Mecklenburg towns.

Mecklenburg commissioner Jim Puckett, a toll-lane opponent, said he had been approached by Lake Norman businessmen about trying to repeal the half-cent sales tax for transit. Puckett said some in the region feel shortchanged from the transit tax because the Charlotte Area Transit System had failed to make progress on a commuter rail line to Lake Norman.

Instead, DOT has been touting the toll lanes as an alternative to the train. Because buses can use the lanes for free, Curran has said the lanes can make buses attractive for commuters.

The city said toll lanes for U.S. 74 could open next year. Toll lanes for I-485 in south Charlotte could open in 2019.

This story was originally published January 20, 2016 at 10:25 AM with the headline "Regional planning group approves toll lanes."