I-77 Toll Lane Construction Deadline Extended

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – With private toll lane company Cintra poised to miss an end of the year deadline, NCDOT is giving the Spanish firm 10 more months to complete the I-77 toll lane project.

Drivers are outraged.

“I don’t know why it’s taking so long right now. Another year is crazy!” says Davidson, NC resident Doug Hudgens.

The contract originally called for a $10,000 fine for each day the project wasn’t complete after January 7th, 2019.

Now that date has been moved to November 1st, nearly a year from now.

“Traffic is in the conversation all the time in our house and, you know, I don’t want to talk about traffic, I want to go places,” Hudgens says.

NCDOT says the delay is because of requests from the local transportation planning board, which wanted direct connectors added at Lakeview Road and Hambright Road.

Another addition: work on the general purpose lanes.

A spokesperson for NCDOT couldn’t tell WCCB Charlotte when those projects were added.

But toll lane opponent and Widen I-77 founder Kurt Naas says they aren’t anything new.

“The design changes they’re talking about, direct connects and rehabilitating the pavement, that was talked about in 2013. It should have come as a surprise to no one,” Naas says.

He’s disappointed by the delay.

“The only people who are being penalized are the Lake Norman commuters who have to be stuck in construction traffic a year longer that what was contractually agreed to,” Naas says.