Just two weeks after the Charlotte City Council voted to rescind support for the controversial I-77 South toll lane project, a key regional transportation board has just voted to effectively kill the plan altogether.
Yesterday, the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization officially voted to withdraw support for the proposed toll lane expansion between Uptown Charlotte and the South Carolina state line.
The proposed 11-mile project would have added managed toll lanes along Interstate 77 and carried an estimated cost exceeding $3.2 billion.
Before the vote, the North Carolina Department of Transportation warned the decision could eliminate roughly $600 million in previously allocated transportation funding for the Charlotte region.
NCDOT officials said the money could be redistributed elsewhere across North Carolina and any future I-77 expansion plans might need to restart from the beginning.
CRTPO Chairman Brad Richardson warned the vote could have “unknown and uncertain consequences” and described the decision as potentially “final” and “perhaps irreversible.”
Representatives from Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, and Matthews largely led the push to halt the project.
