Gaston is widening a highway without tolls. Charlotte isn't.

You’re reading Charlotte in Motion, a biweekly newsletter that examines how the Charlotte region is dealing with bumper-to-bumper traffic, rising housing costs, crowded schools and other challenges that come with the ultimate Charlotte story of growth. Charlotte in Motion is produced in partnership between The Charlotte Ledger and WFAE.

Today’s Charlotte in Motion is sponsored by PBS Charlotte. Wondering what politicians are thinking but not saying? Watch PBS Charlotte on Fridays at 8 p.m. as former Governor Pat McCrory delivers no-spin answers. Stream anytime on demand at wtvi.org/unspun.

by Steve Harrison
WFAE

In the debate over whether to build toll lanes on Interstate 77 between uptown and South Carolina, supporters have often focused on one argument: We have no choice.

They have said that to widen I-77, to reduce congestion and traffic accidents, that toll lanes are the only way to get the job done. 

They focus on two points.

We have no choice has been accepted by most key policymakers, even those who are concerned about the project's effects on historically Black neighborhoods and people who have a general disdain for toll lanes.

But Gaston County is showing that there is another way to widen an interstate through an urban/suburban area.

The N.C. DOT is planning to widen 10 miles of Interstate 85 in Gaston County from six lanes to eight lanes. 

The project costs $1.5 billion. The highway widening is subject to the same $600 million “corridor cap” as I-77 heading south out of uptown. And yet on the Gaston project that is about the same length as the planned I-77 widening, the DOT is moving ahead without toll lanes.

How?

And could Charlotte do the same?

The state’s corridor cap is meant to prevent one highway project from gobbling up all of the money in the statewide mobility fund. 

State law says: “No more than ten percent (10%) of the funds projected to be allocated to the Statewide Strategic Mobility category over any five‑year period may be assigned to any project or group of projects in the same corridor within a Highway Division or within adjoining Highway Divisions.”

To get around the corridor cap, the DOT and the Gaston-Cleveland-Lincoln Planning Organization broke the I-85 widening into three different projects. Each project was scored according to the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program formula, and each segment qualified for funding.

“Because of the complexity of the project, it needed to be delivered in three phases,” said Chrissy Murphy, a DOT spokesperson for Gaston County. “However, breaking the project into three phases and delivering them on different schedules helps NCDOT deliver it within the bounds of the Statewide Mobility Corridor Cap as defined by the STI law.”

Construction on I-85 is scheduled to begin this year and finish in 2033. The lanes will be added between U.S. 321 in Gastonia (Exit 17) and N.C. 273 in Belmont (Exit 27). (A separate $45 million project upgrading the I-85/I-485 interchange in Mecklenburg near Gaston is under construction.)

If you are a skeptic of whether Gaston’s I-85 plan could be used in Charlotte, you may quickly note the difference in costs between the two projects. I-85 will cost $1.5 billion. I-77 is estimated to cost more than twice as much, $3.2 billion.

But much of the difference in cost is due to the much bigger plans for I-77. 

While I-85 will get one new general-purpose free lane in each direction, I-77 will get two express toll lanes in each direction. That requires special on- and off-ramps. It requires the demolition and rebuilding of almost all bridges over I-77. It requires the purchase of more land and the demolition of more houses.

Stallings town council member Brad Richardson is the chair of the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization, the key local decision-maker on I-77. He said CRTPO never considered just adding one new free lane in each direction to I-77, and the organization never considered breaking the design into different segments, as the DOT did in Gaston.

“We have always assumed the project will be managed lanes,” he said, using the term planners use to refer to toll lanes.

The reason: In 2007, the Charlotte City Council approved a long-term congestion relief strategy that relies on express toll lanes like those on I-77 north of uptown. So instead of I-77 toll lanes being built because we have no choice, they are being built because that’s the choice Charlotte planners and elected officials made nearly two decades ago.

The Charlotte City Council could direct its voting member on the CRTPO to kill the current I-77 toll lane project and order the DOT to plan for adding one new lane instead. Because Charlotte has more than 40% of the CRTPO vote, that motion would likely pass.

Here is a look at the pros and cons of junking the I-77 toll lane plan for a scaled-back plan that adds one free lane in each direction.

◼️ Adding one free lane in each direction would provide more congestion relief to the vast majority of motorists – especially those who don’t have enough money to pay for tolls. While two express toll lanes in each direction would shift some traffic out of the free lanes, increasing free lane capacity by 33% would spread vehicles more evenly.

◼️ There would be far less disruption and negative impacts to historically Black neighborhoods near center city. I-77 is already four lanes in each direction from the Brookshire Freeway to the John Belk Freeway – about 1.5 miles –  so the amount of new construction needed would be minimal. Frazier Park would not be impacted. Neither would Pinewood Cemetery, and there would be no elevated toll lanes that residents say would be ugly. 

Here’s what the highway looks like today at Trade Street, with a total of eight lanes:

In addition, the Wilmore neighborhood would likely see far fewer impacts. Under the current express toll lanes plan, several homes on Spruce Street will be demolished. Under a scaled-back plan, the two new lanes could likely be added to the west of I-77, saving those houses.

◼️ Construction would be less expensive – and less complex.

The I-77 bridge over West Arrowood Road wouldn’t need to be widened because it’s already four lanes in each direction.

The South Tryon Street, Tyvola and Woodlawn bridges over I-77 wouldn’t need to be demolished and rebuilt because there is already enough room underneath them to add lanes.

To be sure, some bridges would have to be torn down under any widening scenario. The Nations Ford Road bridge, for instance, just doesn’t have enough room for any additional lanes. 

And there are stretches of the highway in which adding even one new lane would be complex because of the challenging topography and lack of space.

◼️ Not having a managed toll lane is a loss for high-income motorists who like having a guaranteed travel time. It can also hurt small businesses like, say, a plumber, who wouldn’t have a known travel time to reach their next customer. And there are low-income drivers who sometimes need to get places in a hurry, even if it’s infrequent. Transit advocates and urbanists point out that new free lanes eventually fill up and become congested themselves, something that managed toll lanes are meant to stay pricey enough to avoid.

◼️ There is no express lane for buses. Transit buses will be able to use the express toll lanes for free, and transportation planners hope that will induce more people to ditch their cars and ride transit.

But CATS buses already have access to the express toll lanes on I-77 north, and ridership on those three express routes is far below what it was pre-pandemic. There are only about 315 people who ride those I-77 routes daily.

◼️ It would disrupt Charlotte’s vision of a network of managed lanes. There are already express toll lanes on I-77 north and I-485 in south Charlotte. The I-77 toll lanes are meant to connect those two projects, allowing motorists to traverse much of Mecklenburg County without stopping – for a fee.

Charlotte leaders want a transportation system that, in a way, discourages people from driving. Toll lanes are an effective way to do that.

Charlotte City Council member Ed Driggs is the city’s point person on transportation and the most ardent supporter of the I-77 toll lanes. In an interview, he said he doesn’t think the I-85 plan of dividing the highway into segments would work for I-77 in Charlotte.

He said if Charlotte accessed the statewide corridor cap three times, it would have no money left over for other projects. 

But Driggs’ interpretation is incorrect. The I-85 project in Gaston is tapping money only from a statewide pot of money. The area can still access different pots of money – including one for projects set aside specifically for the Gaston area.

Charlotte would be able to do the same.

Steve Harrison is a reporter with WFAE, Charlotte’s NPR news source. Reach him at [email protected].

What’s the story with all these massive data centers being built across North Carolina? Who benefits, and who pays? And what does it mean as AI is driving even more demand for them?

A six-part series from WFAE, WUNC and Blue Ridge Radio called “Hyperscale, Hyperspeed: Inside the Data Center Boom Reshaping NC Communities” digs into those questions. It examines the rapid growth of data centers and the tradeoffs that come with them, digging into the effects on jobs and investment to energy use, water demands and local impacts.

➡️ You can read the articles in the series here