Monroe switches vote on I-77 South project to avoid possible forced repayment
The City of Monroe intends to reverse its vote on revoking the funding agreement for the controversial Interstate 77 South toll lane project.
In a special meeting Wednesday morning, the Monroe City Council voted to direct its representative on the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization to switch the city’s vote in support of the funding agreement for I-77. CRTPO makes decisions about transportation projects in the area.
In May, Monroe Mayor Pro Tem and CRTPO member Surluta Anthony voted against the agreement, along with several other municipalities, including the city of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County.
The vote was a major reversal for the project, which has been on the table since 2014.
And Anthony’s vote caused its own upheaval in Monroe. The city’s mayor, Robert Burns, was vocal in his disapproval of Anthony’s decision to revoke Monroe’s approval of the funding and the project.
That disapproval was heightened when state Sen. Vickie Sawyer began floating a proposed amendment to a transportation bill that would force local governments to repay the North Carolina Department of Transportation for money spent on the project if they voted to rescind the funding agreement.
NCDOT has spent about $64 million on the project.
The amendment is still in the early stages. But if it passed, Burns and Monroe’s City Manager Mark Watson, estimated that the city could lose about $133.6 million.
CRTPO is having its monthly meeting Wednesday night and a discussion on the I-77 South project is on the agenda. A motion can be made to revote on the funding agreement. A simple majority vote would be needed to add the action to the agenda and for it to pass.
CRTPO uses a weighted vote system and Charlotte makes up about 41% of the vote.
Monroe’s reversal wouldn’t flip CRTPO’s vote to recommit to the funding agreement.
But the move would change Monroe’s stance and remove them from having to repay NCDOT if Sawyer’s amendment passes.
The proposed amendment will be discussed in Wednesday’s Senate Transportation Committee.
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. A public-private partnership funding agreement 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.
Charlotte City Council voted to revoke the funding agreement in May and CRTPO followed suit.
But some city and country representatives said their vote didn’t signal the end for the project nor did it mean nothing should be done to the congested corridor.
Instead, representatives wanted to see some alternatives and additional studies on the corridor and how it could be improved.
This story was originally published June 17, 2026 at 11:37 AM.
