‘Eroding of Trust’ Cited in Ongoing I-77 Toll Lane Debate

The Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization (CRTPO) met on Wednesday amid growing opposition to the I-77 South toll lane project, which will involve constructing toll lanes along an 11-mile stretch of I-77 from the South Carolina state line to I-277.

The meeting came days after NC Department of Transportation (NCDOT) officials canceled a scheduled tour of the areas that will be impacted by the highway expansion, citing safety concerns. 

Charlotte City Council member Ed Driggs, the city’s representative on the transportation board, encouraged his colleagues on Wednesday to wait for more answers from the state before moving to halt or cancel the project, which has already been paused to provide NCDOT more time to gather public feedback. 

A special Charlotte City Council meeting called on Tuesday to discuss the project in the hours before the CRTPO meeting was canceled Wednesday morning. 

In a live chat on the YouTube live stream of Wednesday’s CRTPO meeting, Charlotte’s District 6 rep Kimberly Owens expressed her disappointment that the meeting was canceled, stating council members did not get a chance to inform Driggs of their thoughts on where things stood.

As he has during city council meetings, Driggs on Wednesday cited a 2025 CRTPO vote that gave NCDOT the green light to move forward with the project, one that he said gave the body 60 days to rescind their support and limited their authority to do so after that window had passed. 

That vote followed a 2024 decision to support a P3 funding model for the highway expansion, which mixes private and public funding through the implementation of toll lanes. Driggs emphasized that the community backlash did not start until potential designs for the project were released in fall 2025. 

Mecklenburg County commissioner Leigh Altman, the county’s representative on CRTPO, said Wednesday that she has continuously invited NCDOT to present to the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners to address three areas of concern: impacts to communities along the I-77 South corridor; environmental effects including impacts to Mecklenburg County properties and parks; and potential alternatives to the toll lane model. 

A recent analysis by county staff found that the expansion would likely impact 11 parks, four greenway corridors, multiple streams and wetlands while exposing nearby residents to higher levels of traffic pollution. 

“I certainly have experienced an eroding of trust in this process,” Altman said. “And so some of those conversations and some of the facts or principles that we were talking about a year ago, I’m frankly less confident about because some of the things that have come out since then really haven’t stood up under scrutiny, and that has harmed trust for me.” 

The state has its say

Stephen Rosenburgh, a member of both CRTPO and the NC Board of Transportation, emphasized at Wednesday’s meeting that the design phase for the project is still in its early stages and insisted that the NCDOT is still working to minimize community impacts. 

He dismissed alternative options such as building a tunnel (“It’s impossible financially and you take out a lot more land.”) or investing in more public transit to help with highway congestion (“We don’t have enough people riding existing public transit.”). 

Rosenburgh warned that canceling the project would damage NCDOT’s relationship with the city of Charlotte, repeatedly citing the city’s opposition despite the fact that the broader CRTPO is the body responsible for negotiating with the state. 

He said NCDOT has committed $700 million to the project and has already spent around $50 million on it, money that can’t be used for some other project in Charlotte. 

“We have to accept the realities; tunneling is not going to work, a train is not going to work,” said Rosenburgh. “We’ve got $600 million, we’ve got another $100 million and we’ve got some community benefits. Beyond that, I can’t assure you of a lot of things, but I can assure you the legislature is not giving any more money to this city.

“If the city doesn’t want this project, Raleigh will take this $600 [million] plus $100 million tomorrow. Greensboro will take it tomorrow,” he continued. “It’s not being allocated to another project. It is leaving the city and it won’t be coming back.”  

Other CRTPO members from municipalities in the greater Charlotte area expressed regret about the body’s previous support for the project on Wednesday, calling on NCDOT to find a compromise that takes community opposition into account and minimizes impacts.

Cornelius commissioner and CRTPO rep Michael Osborne challenged Rosenburgh’s claims that the project was needed to relieve congestion along the southern stretch of I-77, citing the failure of the toll lanes constructed along the northern stretch of Mecklenburg County to have any such effect.

“We talked a little bit about trust and, you know why there’s distrust out there,” said Osborne. “I think it’s because they see that we already implemented a P3 in the north and there were expectations it relieved traffic and it didn’t. It’s a fact, it’s not an opinion.”

Davidson Mayor Rusty Knox agreed, pointing out that I-77 North becomes a “parking lot” between Exit 16 in Charlotte and Exit 30 during rush hour despite the toll lanes along that stretch.

Mineral Springs Mayor and CRTPO member Frederick Becker acknowledged that the construction of I-77 and I-277 have “hamstrung” Charlotte and hindered its growth, saying of the highway, “It’s not a necklace, it’s a noose.” 

He echoed a suggestion from Davidson Mayor Rusty Knox that state officials explore a “cap-and-stitch” model in which infrastructure is built over sunken highways so as to reconnect communities torn about by their construction.

“That would create a much more beautiful city if that were capped and stitched,” Becker said. “If you eliminated the Trade and 4th [streets] interchange so that everything could … be covered, you suddenly have a wide-open vista where Charlotte can grow again.”

Community members continue to speak out

NCDOT reps canceled a tour of the neighborhoods that will be impacted by the highway expansion that was scheduled for Monday, claiming they were worried for their safety. 

Though details are unclear, the agency likely learned that word had gotten out about their tour and expected to be confronted by neighbors who have been passionately opposing the proposed project for months. 

An NCDOT spokesperson said the cancellation was “due to potential circumstances that could not be safely accommodated,” according to reporting from WFAE. 

Sean Langley, president of the McCrorey Heights neighborhood association, has been at the forefront of opposition to the proposed toll lane project. A number of the potential designs presented in fall 2025 involved the razing of homes in McCrorey Heights, a historically Black neighborhood. 

Read more: Opposition to I-77 Toll Lanes Grows with Proposed Design Release (2025)

Langley on Wednesday took issue with recent NCDOT assurances that “only 5%” of the community would be impacted by the project. 

“Don’t fall victim to NCDOT saying that this project doesn’t harm 95% of the community,” Langley told CRTPO members during the public forum segment of Wednesday’s meeting. “It harms us psychologically by having a physical barrier, a concrete barrier next to our homes. It harms us environmentally by having pollution, by having noise, by our quality of life. It certainly decreases our property value.”

Langley called on CRTPO to commission an independent transportation analysis to explore alternative options to the toll lanes, citing the recent county study that found emissions rates are 19% higher for neighborhoods that abut I-77. 

“Please take that into consideration for myself, our families, our seniors, and countless other individuals that love our community and want the best for it,” said Langley.