CHARLOTTE, NC — A project that will toll sections of Independence Boulevard has engines overheating. It’s a story WCCB Charlotte has been following since 2010.
Plans for expensive toll lanes on Interstate 77 have been causing controversy, but it looks like US 74 will be the first pay-to-drive road in Charlotte.
“I don’t want to have to pay, though, to drive up and down 74,” says East Charlotte resident Lisa Ortega. “I mean. I drive it every single day.”
Ortega is not alone. Thousands of people use Independence Boulevard every day, and it can be frustrating.
“Our infrastructure demands are not keeping pace with the population growth,” says Jen Thompson with the North Carolina Department of Transportation. “Of course our revenue streams are diminishing as well. We’ve got to find other ways to try and improve our infrastructure.”
Thompson is talking about a project that could bring toll lanes to US 74 by the end of 2016.
“We’re not tolling the entire section of lanes,” says Thompson. “It’s an option for people to choose to do it if they so desire. If they need to get somewhere quicker.”
Thompson says the toll lanes will run from I-277 down to Wallace Lane and Albemarle Road, and will cost roughly $14 million to outfit.
Converting bus lanes into toll lanes on US 74 is proactive, and hopefully a step in the right direction, because businesses up and down Independence Boulevard are hurting.
City councilman John Autry represents East Charlotte. He says the city doesn’t have any say in what NC DOT does on Independence.
“They make the decisions with its use, how it works and when it works… when it works,” says Autry. “We’re left with those decisions and coping with them.”
And those decisions have left US 74 with major issues. Too much traffic and construction.
“It looks like somebody was doing some strafe-bombing out there if you go drive along there,” says Autry. “It’s driven away businesses. It’s hurt the businesses that are there.”
NC DOT plans to handle the Independence Boulevard project in-house. The state also plans to open another toll lane project on I-485.
