NC legislature proposal could require Charlotte to repay I-77 tolls costs
A proposal in the state legislature could require Charlotte to repay the North Carolina Department of Transportation for money already spent on the suspended Interstate 77 South toll lane project.
The measure also could block NCDOT from removing the project from its prioritization list until next year, according to a copy obtained by The Charlotte Observer.
Sen. Vickie Sawyer, a Republican representing Iredell and part of Mecklenburg County, is named at the top of an amendment to a tangential bill being debated by the General Assembly. House Bill 1094 would require an audit of NCDOT’s ferry division.
It comes after Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization revoked its support for the $3.2 billion project’s funding agreement last month in a major reversal. NCDOT had spent $60 million before the CRTPO pulled the plug.
The Sawyer amendment could require local governments that voted in favor of rescinding support to divide that cost among themselves based on the value of their weighted CRTPO votes. Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, Davidson, Monroe, Cornelius, Matthews, Mint Hill, Huntersville and the Metropolitan Transit Commission representatives all voted to rescind and could shoulder the cost.
Charlotte’s vote held the most weight at 41%.
NCDOT also would withhold state aid from local governments and would not start new transportation projects on the prioritization list until those governments repaid the costs, according to the bill amendment.
The changes aren’t a certainty because the bill hasn’t passed or had the amendment attached to it yet.
The city of Charlotte said in a statement it is “reviewing the draft amendment to understand potential impacts.” Sawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Monroe Mayor Robert Burns was against rescinding the project’s funding, and his city’s representative voted for rescinding it. He’s upset Monroe might now be on the hook.
“So many individuals in government ... they don’t think through these issues, and they took a victory lap way too soon. And it’s very unfortunate,” Burns told the Observer. “The turning down of the I-77 was going to affect our city, and here’s just step one.”
A private company was supposed to field most of the I-77 expansion cost and recoup money over time through toll lanes. NCDOT pledged $600 million toward the project, plus an additional $100 million to be spent on transportation projects of the city’s choosing.
In the aftermath of the rescission, NCDOT said the project would be removed from the state’s transportation improvement prioritization list and Charlotte would lose the $700 million state commitment.
Sawyer’s draft amendment could prevent the state department from taking any of those actions until Jan. 1.
What was the I-77 South Toll Lane project?
NCDOT planned to add toll lanes to an 11-mile stretch of I-77 from uptown to the South Carolina border. It’s a project that’s been in the works since 2007. And funding was approved in 2024.
I-77 South, according to NCDOT, has the state’s highest congestion levels, seeing over 160,000 cars a day. The toll lanes would address congestion and crashes, NCDOT said.
But residents heavily opposed the I-77 South project after NCDOT released preliminary designs for the roadway in November. Those designs showed roadways through people’s homes, particularly in historically Black neighborhoods that have borne the cost of growth before.
Residents wanted to see more transparency and engagement from NCDOT.
And the agency tried. It opened a community engagement center and held several community benefits meetings. But the trust between residents and NCDOT was already lost, according to Charlotte City Councilman Malcolm Graham.
Some members of Charlotte City Council heard residents’ complaints. Council revoked its approval of the funding in a narrow vote on May 11. CRTPO followed suit on May 20.
Prior discussions on repercussions
Fear of unknown repercussions, specifically from the General Assembly, was part of CRTPO member and Mineral Springs’ Mayor Rick Becker’s reasoning for not dissolving the funding agreement.
Becker called the move “risky” during CRTPO’s meeting last month, adding that the General Assembly could take over the project altogether, leaving the people living along the corridor and who use the corridor in a worse predicament.
Charlotte City Council member Ed Driggs specifically cautioned that the state could try to recoup what NCDOT has already spent.
“I would have the feeling that the state was justified in thinking that the behavior of the city was unreasonable because of the costs and the benefits and the balance of the whole thing,” Driggs previously told the Observer.
N.C. Board of Transportation at-large member Stephen Rosenburgh has stated repeatedly that the move to rescind would look bad for the region and could have consequences.
“This road is the economic lifeline for this region, not just Charlotte,” Rosenburgh said during the CRTPO meeting. “In my personal opinion, it would not look favorably on the city of Charlotte turning down $700 million.”
But proponents of revoking the funding agreement said they couldn’t operate under hypotheticals.
John Higdon, CRTPO member and the mayor of Matthews, believed it would be unlikely the state legislature would get involved in Charlotte’s affairs. Maybe, but unlikely.
Charlotte City Councilmember Victoria Watlington agreed.
“I would hope that in the course of conducting the city’s business and the region’s business, the process would indicate that there is authority at the local level to change our minds,” Watlington previously told the Observer.
Reporter Nora O’Neill contributed to this story.
This story was originally published June 11, 2026 at 6:11 PM.
