The biggest transportation decision in the Charlotte region this month did not happen in Ballantyne, but it reshapes how the area will deal with one of its worst traffic corridors. On Wednesday, May 20, the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization — CRTPO — voted to withdraw its support for the I-77 South toll lanes, all but ending a $3.2 billion expansion that would have run from just north of Uptown to the South Carolina line.
What actually happened, briefly:
The project is off the state's funded list. The vote removes I-77 from the N.C. Department of Transportation's ten-year construction program. A road that is not on that list does not get built.
The money is leaving. Transportation Secretary Daniel Johnson had warned Mayor Vi Lyles, in a May 15 letter, that rejecting the toll plan would cost the region an estimated $700 million in state funding, to be redistributed elsewhere. After the vote, NCDOT confirmed the loss.
There's no replacement yet. Opponents are floating non-tolled ideas — bus-on-shoulder service, micro-transit, reversible HOV lanes — but none is funded or on the state plan. The congestion the project was meant to fix is unchanged.
It also lands at an awkward moment: Mayor Lyles has said she will resign June 30, so what comes next falls to her successor.
For the full account — and how CRTPO's weighted vote let Charlotte drive the outcome — see The Charlotte Mercury's coverage.