A board member for the North Carolina Department of Transportation said Wednesday night that if Charlotte rejects a plan to build toll lanes on Interstate 77, he would question whether the state should fund other transportation projects in the city.
Opponents of the I-77 project said DOT board member Stephen Rosenburgh’s comments were a “threat” and designed to intimidate local officials.
Rosenberg spoke at a meeting of the Charlotte Regional Transportation Organization during a discussion about the controversial toll lane project. He said if local leaders reject the $3.2 billion I-77 widening, he would question whether the state should be funding other Charlotte road projects.
“If this transportation board decides not to go through with this… It’s going to affect other work we’re doing here, too. Let’s be realistic here,” said Rosenburgh, who was appointed to the DOT board by the legislature in 2020.
“We’ve probably spent $50 million on this already. So if the city doesn’t want this, then I, as a board member, would say, ‘What does the city want? Should we be involved in these other projects?’ ”
'A shocking thing to hear'
The Southern Environmental Law Center and Sustain Charlotte said Rosenburgh’s comments were a threat aimed at Charlotte City Council members to keep them from stopping the project.
There is currently an intense debate over the I-77 toll lane project from uptown to the South Carolina line. Residents in some historically Black neighborhoods near uptown have said the highway widening will hurt their communities, just as the original highway construction did decades ago when it separated them from uptown.
Others, including the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance, are pushing for the project to move forward because I-77 is one of the most congested highways in the state. The interstate is in gridlock in both directions for much of the day.
Megan Kimball with the Southern Environmental Law Center, who is helping impacted neighborhoods, said Rosenburgh’s comments were out of bounds.
“It really was a shocking thing to hear from a member of the board of transportation,” she said. “I think the implication was to threaten elected officials into staying the course even though they may want to continue to look at this project and consider whether it really is best for Charlotte.”
Thirteen years ago, the General Assembly created a new way to rank transportation projects in North Carolina. The idea was to remove politics from deciding what gets built where, with a points-based system weighing congestion and other needs. Former Gov. Pat McCrory has said it was one of his signature accomplishments.
Kimball said state law does not allow for DOT board members to interject themselves into the State Transportation Improvement Program. If the CRTPO rejected I-77, that wouldn’t impact other state projects like widening Steele Creek Road.
She also said that if CRTPO rejected the current I-77 plan, projects in other cities would compete for the $600 million set aside for toll lanes.
Charlotte could still resubmit the project in the future, she said.
“Again, the best project wins,” Kimball said. “So Charlotte has just as good of a chance as anyone of having that money return as any other place in the state.”
Charlotte City Council members are the most important decision-makers in whether the project is built. The city holds more than 40% of the votes on CRTPO, whose approval is needed for I-77 to move forward.
Many are torn over the project.
Some do not want to see Black residents displaced, but they also do not want to hurt their relationships with the DOT and the business community.
Council members were scheduled to hold a special meeting about the toll lanes Wednesday, but abruptly cancelled it without offering an explanation.
Toll lane opponent Shannon Binns with Sustain Charlotte said Rosenburgh’s comments were a “classic fear-mongering technique. Trying to essentially bully or threaten the city into doing what the NCDOT wants the city to do.”
WFAE reached out to the N.C. DOT Thursday morning about Rosenburgh’s comments and whether the department would penalize Charlotte if it rejected the toll lanes. The agency did not directly address Rosenburgh's comments in its response.
"Under state law, transportation funding is allocated through a competitive, statewide process. If a project does not move forward, those funds are redistributed to other projects across the state and are not guaranteed to return to the same region. That is why canceling the project would result in the loss of $600 million in statewide funds and $100 million in bonus funds for Mecklenburg County, with no guarantee of these funds returning to the region," wrote spokesperson Jen Goodwin.
"Opportunities to improve the corridor would be lost and existing congestion and safety issues would remain unaddressed."
N.C. DOT board chair Tony Lathrop also attended Wednesday’s meeting. He did not address Rosenburgh’s comments. He spoke about his desire for the project to move forward with residents’ support.
Earlier this month, the DOT announced it was delaying issuing a Request for Proposals from four contractors so it could discuss the project more with residents. The DOT has opened a community engagement center, but a planned tour of west side neighborhoods on Monday was cancelled due to what the DOT called a “credible security threat.”
It turns out that some uninvited residents wanted to participate in a DOT walking tour near the highway, prompting the state to cancel.
For now, most City Council members are supporting the DOT’s decision to delay moving forward until June to listen to the concerns of residents.
The state has also said it will ask contractors for alternative designs. But given the size and scope of the project — two new toll lanes in each direction — there may be few ways to lessen the impact.
