NCDOT Secretary meets with community, city leaders about elevated toll lanes project

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – NC Department of Transportation Secretary Daniel Johnson met with neighborhood and city council leaders about the interstate 77 toll lanes project. NCDOT has been facing major backlash for the plan to build elevated toll lanes that will hover over homes in Charlotte.

“This is a project that will impact all of Charlotte. And so we need as much as many people as possible to be vocal about this, because by its nature, creating a toll lane is a discriminatory practice,” Sean Langley, President, McCrorey Heights Neighborhood Association said.

The latest maps from NCDOT show elevated toll lanes that will hover above homes in Charlotte. The maps have been changed multiple times. In a private meeting, NCDOT Secretary Daniel Johnson talked to neighborhood leaders Tuesday night.

“The Secretary of Transportation definitely listened more than he spoke, but, he didn’t understand the concerns of the community and what the community is actually looking for,” Langley said.

NCDOT has agreed to delay hiring vendors and contractors to build the $3.2 billion dollar project until June. Secretary Johnson met with city council leaders Wednesday morning. Councilman Malcolm Graham says he is cautiously optimistic about how NCDOT is working to address concerns from residents.

“There will be four developers who will be bidding to get the contract. They’re all coming to town to meet with residents themselves so that they can have input in terms of how their initial designs will be drawn up,” Councilman Graham said. “That’s really, I think, encouraging, so that there’s still some time to influence the design of the project and really identify where the impact is going to occur.”

NCDOT is opening a community engagement center to hear feedback from residents.

“The goal is to how to design the highway in a way that it minimizes the type of impact. And where we identified that it will occur to really talk to those neighbors right now, explain to them the process, how they can get involved, etc,” Councilman Graham said.

Neighborhood leaders want NCDOT to search for other options outside of elevated toll lanes.

“A toll lane as we know it, and as research is suggested for the last 30, 40 years, is it’s going to increase congestion,” Langley said. “We’re trying to reconnect communities. We’re trying to make it so we have more walkable spaces. We understand that people want to move around Charlotte and we’re trying to move people. But there should also be other recommendations.”

The community engagement center is set to open sometime in April somewhere on the west side of town. There’s also some discussion about how NCDOT will find a way to discount toll lanes for low income residents.

Neighborhood leaders would like to engage more with Governor Josh Stein since he has authority of NCDOT.