Vote set on whether NCDOT should study Cintra’s pitch to expand I-77 South in Charlotte
A Charlotte-area government road planning group has scheduled a vote next month on whether officials should study using managed lanes on Interstate 77 from Charlotte to South Carolina. That could include possible toll lanes on that stretch.
Highway builder Cintra dated its proposal Feb. 11, 2022. Cintra proposes adding two managed lanes in each direction while keeping the existing free general-purpose lanes, according to the proposal.
Managed lanes can include uses like high-occupancy vehicle lanes or toll lanes and are meant to guarantee travel time along congested highways.
In a chart in its proposal, Cintra lists “allow tolling” as an expectation of NCDOT in a possible public-private partnership for the new lanes.
The Spain-based road-building giant built, financed and manages the 26 miles of I-77 toll lanes from I-277/Brookshire Freeway to Mooresville.
Construction angered drivers caught in backups. Lake Norman business leaders and other residents said the state gasoline tax they’ve paid for decades should have added free lanes on the highway.
And local officials and residents are still upset over the state’s contract with Cintra, which bars new general-purpose free lanes for 50 years without stiff financial penalties. Cintra also was fined tens of thousands of dollars daily for missing an opening deadline.
The CRTPO submitted an I-77 South express lanes project to NCDOT in 2014. The stretch also was part of a “fast-lane” study years earlier, according to an NCDOT timeline of I-77 South expansion plans.
NCDOT expects the I-77 South managed lanes to cost $2.1 billion.
If NCDOT ultimately sought bids to build such lanes, the department is legally required to invited other bidders as well, not just Cintra, NCDOT officials have said.
Public push back against Cintra
The public’s emotions are still so raw over the northern leg that members of the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization board never mentioned Cintra’s name when discussing the company’s proposal at its meeting Wednesday night at the Charlotte Mecklenburg Government Center.
The group recommends road projects in Mecklenburg, Iredell and Union counties to NCDOT.
Neil Burke, the organization’s deputy director, told the board that its vote on whether to give NCDOT the go-ahead on the study will appear on the agenda of its next meeting, 6 p.m. Feb. 15 at the Government Center, 600 E. 4th St.
Mecklenburg County support
In November, Mecklenburg County commissioners voted 6-3 to support the further research into I-77 South managed lanes.
“We have to try to find solutions in a way that protect the public’s interest and are wise,” at-large Commissioner Leigh Altman said at the time, The Charlotte Observer previously reported. “We’re continuing the due diligence of learning how we must do it.”
At Wednesday’s CRTPO board meeting, Janet LaBar urged the board to support the NCDOT study. LaBar is president and CEO of the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance.
“In the last five years, 85% of crashes on I-77 South were congestion-related,” LaBar said. “We have to continue advancing ideas to ensure safer roads.”
Meanwhile, 40% of the region’s population lives within a 3-mile radius of I-77 South, LaBar said. “And if projections are correct, 700,000 additional residents will call this 3-mile radius home by 2050.”
“It’s just too important of a corridor not to examine comprehensively,” she said.
This story was originally published January 26, 2023 at 2:23 PM.