Citizens Question Officials: Where is I-77 on NCDOT Priority List?
HOT lanes simply do not alleviate congestion...as illustrated.
Interstate 77 from Exit 23 in Huntersville to Exit 36 in Mooresville is one of the state’s most highly congested four-lane stretches of highway; yet state officials say it will be twenty years before taxpayer funds will be available to widen it. NCDOT has proposed accelerating this timeline by utilizing a private partner to build and operate toll lanes. WidenI77.Org, a citizen’s group opposed to toll lanes, is questioning officials about which projects in North Carolina currently have a higher priority.
WidenI77.Org’s Kurt Naas says, “Since this stretch of I-77 was constructed nearly 40 years ago it has never been widened. We want to understand why it would take 60 years before this critical transportation artery is improved, and what projects the state has cued up ahead of it. We believe the state’s prioritization process is in desperate need of improvement. For instance, the recently completed Triangle Expressway cost one billion dollars and in twenty years is projected to carry only half the traffic I-77 carries today. It’s critical that our tax dollars are properly prioritized all across our state.”
NCDOT and elected officials have repeatedly told citizens that there is no other choice but to accept toll lanes operated by an outside company or wait 20 or more years for general purpose lanes funded through the State. “At every public briefing we hear elected officials say ‘it’s tolls now or nothing for 20 or more years’; however, when we ask which projects are ahead of us, we never receive an answer,” added Naas. “It’s become clear that this is a sales pitch or scare tactic by the state to gain public acceptance for their plan to implement toll highways across N.C. In our case, the state has allocated more public funding for the I-77 toll project than it would cost to widen I-77 with general purpose lanes. So from a fiscal point of view, this just doesn’t make sense. It’s a matter of political will, not public funds.”
The state’s solution for widening I-77 calls for contracting with a private, for-profit company. Four companies (with at least three being foreign-owned) are bidding to add two toll lanes in each direction except for the stretch over the causeway near Davidson, which will be a single toll lane in each direction. Instead of adding lanes only to the congested stretch between Huntersville and Mooresville (13 miles), toll lanes will be added from Charlotte’s Brookshire Exit to Mooresville’s Exit 36 (27 miles). The NCDOT explains that a smaller project would not be attractive for a private company; therefore the scope of the project had to be expanded. The original price tag of $64 million has ballooned to $550 million. Rough estimates for widening I-77 from Exit 23 to 36 with general purpose lanes put the cost at $130 to $150 million.
The toll fees would be set by the private company and would not have a ceiling. Using the ‘congestion pricing’ approach, toll fees increase or decrease depending on the amount of traffic: the more traffic, the higher the fee in order to keep traffic in the toll lane moving. Currently two people in a car can use the HOV lane. The new toll lane plan will require three or more to a car for free access. At a public briefing on March 13 in Mooresville, officials representing the NCDOT said they did not know how much drivers would be charged for using the toll lanes.
To learn more about the toll lane proposal and other information pertaining to HOT lane projects in North Carolina, please visit www.wideni77.org or contact us at wideni77@hotmail.com.
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