For the past four months, toll lanes have pushed new trains out of the headlines. The biggest transportation story in Charlotte has been the growing controversy over the planned Interstate 77 toll lanes from uptown to the South Carolina line.
Residents near uptown are livid. Elected officials are proclaiming themselves to be, too, and some are.
To placate them, the N.C. Department of Transportation has said it will listen to residents’ concerns — for three more months.
Meanwhile, I-77 continues to be one of the state’s most congested highways, near gridlock for much of the working day. The Charlotte Regional Business Alliance is urging the project to move forward.
This issue of Charlotte in Motion will look at how the controversy will likely play out over the next few months.
How we got here
When the toll lanes were being debated in late 2024, public officials were mostly focused on the past problems with the toll lanes on I-77 in north Mecklenburg, which include expensive tolls.
That motivated north Mecklenburg’s fiery opposition a decade ago. The biggest focus for the new toll lanes: a cap on toll rates.
Last year, WSOC calculated toll rates on I-77 from uptown to Mooresville during rush hour.
“The cheapest we found was around 5:30 p.m,” the news station wrote. “It would have cost you $28.85 to go about 23 miles. That assumes you have a transponder in your car — without one, the same trip would cost $43.”
Officials didn’t consider the impact of widening I-77 through places like McCrorey Heights and Wilmore.
The Charlotte City Council warily cast a critical vote in October 2024, backing the state’s plan to partner with a private company to build the toll lanes. City Council member Ed Driggs — who was the council’s point person on transportation — told his colleagues the vote was only a first step, and that they could still change their minds. There was fine print to what he said, however: He said they wouldn’t be able to change their minds after the DOT issued a Request for Qualifications in the fall of 2025.
During that same debate, in October 2024, the DOT told council members that it had draft maps of where the toll lanes would go, but it wasn’t ready to release them yet.
About two months after that RFQ was issued in August 2025 (the alleged point of no return), the DOT released two detailed proposals of the highway. Residents — particularly in west Charlotte — were furious.
Both options would demolish homes in Wilmore and eliminate Wilmore Park. Building the toll lanes above the existing highway would require fewer homes to be demolished in places like McCrorey Heights, but residents said the elevated lanes would be ugly.
Residents asked: Why didn’t the DOT release the maps months earlier? Mecklenburg Commissioner Leigh Altman described the delay in releasing the proposals as a “bait and switch.”
DOT says it will listen more, but project scope is the same
After hearing from angry residents, most Charlotte City Council members in late February pushed for the DOT to not only pause the project but to rethink the toll lanes altogether.
The city and DOT then worked out a compromise privately, which they announced on March 2.
The DOT announced it would delay issuing a Request for Proposals until June, to listen to residents more. It did not change the scope of the project. It also did not promise any significant changes to the toll lanes.
But the DOT announcement defanged council members. In a week, most went from speaking angrily about toll lanes to being optimistic about a better highway. They also began promoting the DOT’s proposed “community benefits” — a possible community center near impacted neighborhoods, or perhaps affordable housing.
City Council member Kimberly Owens touted the possibility of a DOT-initiated “community history program,” in which impacted neighborhoods would be photographed before the highway demolished some homes. That would allow the residents to remember what their community looked like before the I-77 expansion.
The DOT said it would ask its potential contractors to meet with the community and perhaps incorporate their ideas for making the toll lanes less intrusive. The state hopes the bidders will come up with alternatives, but there’s no guarantee.
A problem of space
The problem with the idea of “alternative designs” is that the DOT has already done that.
Last fall, it released two proposals for the highway.
One would build the toll lanes at the same elevation as the existing lanes. That would create the largest footprint, impacting the most homes, as well as Pinewood Cemetery and cause the most damage to Frazier Park.
Residents did not like that.
It also proposed elevating the toll lanes, which would impact the surrounding areas less.
Residents did not like that, either.
The fundamental problem is the DOT still plans to add four new lanes total. The lanes have to go somewhere.
It’s hard to see any alternative design that wouldn’t demolish homes in Wilmore and engulf Wilmore Park, for instance.
Some residents have pushed for the DOT to build a one- or two-mile tunnel near uptown. That would hide the highway and could reconnect their westside neighborhoods with uptown.
The DOT said on March 5 it would study that idea. But then, days later, on WFAE’s “Charlotte Talks,” Brett Canipe with the DOT said it’s just not feasible because of the cost.
In December 2024, the N.C. Turnpike Authority said in a memo there are advantages to a tunnel — such as less noise — but that the higher cost and complexity doesn’t make it viable.
One way to solve the cost problem: Have the city of Charlotte partner with the state to bury the highway using money from the recently passed transportation sales tax. That tax sets aside billions of dollars for roads.
City Council members have talked extensively about equity and the need to avoid past mistakes like urban renewal and highway programs that bulldozed through Black and low-income neighborhoods. But they have shown no interest in spending their own pot of money to improve I-77.
County Commissioners get mad
On Tuesday, Mecklenburg County’s environmental committee heard a staff presentation about the toll lanes’ effect on county-owned greenspace. County staff told commissioners that the highway expansion would cut through 11 parks and four greenways — erasing Wilmore Park.
Commissioner Elaine Powell said the presentation made her feel like a green-faced vomiting emoji. Leigh Altman complained again about the bait and switch. Laura Meier said she wanted the DOT to start over.
But Mecklenburg County is only a minor player in the toll lane debate: It controls only three of 74 votes on the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization. The city of Charlotte has 31 votes, or 42%. The planning organization likely has the power to halt the plan, but that would require the City Council to take action and vote to oppose the widening — which it has not done and seems unlikely to do.
The listening tour
The DOT has invited residents to learn more about the project, and it’s promised to establish a permanent office where people can talk to staff members about the potential impacts.
But residents won’t see the final designs until months after the RFP is issued in June. The four finalists could be paid more than $10 million each for their design work, increasing the sunk costs and making it harder to justify backing out.
The likely carrot for residents won’t be a less intrusive project, but the “community benefits” that the DOT talked about on March 5. That could be workforce development programs. Affordable housing. The photo documentation of soon-to-be demolished homes.
The DOT did say it would consider “capping” part of the highway near uptown and placing a park on top. That’s arguably a substantive, long-lasting community benefit.
The Southern Environmental Law Center, Sustain Charlotte and neighborhoods like McCorey Heights are still hoping to kill the project entirely. The Black Political Caucus said it has filed a lawsuit to halt the project.
But after the City Council stood down on March 2, they removed almost all local leverage to control the project.
Democratic Gov. Josh Stein — who is in charge of the DOT — is the only player who can change course.
