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Traffic, Freeways and Road Construction


monsoon

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The paper is reporting the NCDOT has agreed to extend an extra lane on I-77 North from roughly where the northbound HOV lane ends to exit 23. Construction is expected to be complete in November 2005 (which might really mean November 2006 considering how badly the rest of the widening has gone.) This extra lane will address the present design error in the highway widening where 4 lanes all of a sudden become 2. I've noticed that survey markers have recently shown up along this route.

Charlotte had to give up funds for a innercity project in order for the NCDOT to agree to do this project. Not sure which one.

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  • 3 months later...

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yeah... it all comes back to needing more money, and having a separate fund for expensive freeways.

Without it, there will always be tradeoffs where big projects never get done because of the many smaller needs...

... and local politicians fighting over the scraps.

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They should really be expanding an extra lane on I-77 all the way to Statesville. I had to come back to see my parents this weekend, and when I left to drive back to NY it was a Wednesday morning during rush hour, and traffic going south was backed up almost all the way to Statesville. It is funny because I-77 backs up a little bit near I-85, then it is pretty smooth until the HOV lane ends and then it backs up all the way to Statesville when it is 2 lanes on each side - it was a good 30 miles of bumper to bumper traffic, and there was no accident. It really is a shame that some parts of the metro have such inadequate roads.

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yet there are plans for a very expensive revised interchange with i40 in statesville... with a flyover and all.

People will now be able to whiz by on a 3 story tall bridge... just to sit in traffic on a 1950/60s-style freeway for the next 30 miles..

I am actually starting to get bugged off by ncdot's obsession with complex, tall, sprawling interchanges. I just can't get over that they spend all that so that cars can go 70 mph through the intersection, when they could save a ton of money to have them go 45 mph through the intersection... but actually have enough money so people didn't have to go 15mph on congested outdated freeways...

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The reconstruction of I-40 & I-77 interchange is help avoid accidents caused by tractor trailers tipping over on the loop ramps and increase safety. Currently it's very dangerous and heavily used by trucks. There will be two flyovers, both are going towards Charlotte and out of Charlotte. Westbound I-40 to Southbound I-77 and Northbound I-77 to Westbound I-40.

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This is a somewhat new discussion but it falls under the "air pollution" section of the topic thread. Does anyone know what, if anything, is being done to turn Charlotte around in regards to air pollution? In addition to all the problems caused by traffic within Charlotte's limits, there are a ton of coal-fired powerplants that are destroying our air. As anyone who lives in Charlotte knows, a lot of rain comes from the SW and along with it comes wind and air from the SW. NC has 12 coal-fired powerplants, 8 in TN, 12 in SC, and 10 in GA. While most cities in NC are falling further down the list of cities with bad air, Charlotte continues to rise. The whole reason I started this is because ever since I have moved to Charlotte I've been sick a lot more than the rest of my life combined. I always seem to get a cold or a headache (things that I never had prior to moving here). After noticing how bad the air quality is here I can't help but think that this might be the cause. Anyone else in the area notice anything like this?

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I recalled that our state Attorney General is trying to sue other states from the Rust Belt about pollutions caused by their power plants and other pollutions that travels down to our area, however our current administration in Washington are not so pro-enviromental nor have Congress successfully passed a new energy bill. Charlotte however, if we don't meet certain air quality requirements in a few years, our federal tranportation money are in jeopardy.

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That kinda sucks that our federal funding could be in jeopardy when the federal government's lack of federal pollution control is essentially one of the leading causes of our problem. Its bad enough that the citizens have to deal with air pollution caused by the slack environmental laws of other states, but to have the posibility of hindering our growth really makes me mad.

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http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/new...ic/11651582.htm

http://blytheupdates.com/page3.html

http://www.ncdot.org/planning/development/.../maps/U0209.pdf

We are now just a few months from the completion of Independence Boulevard/Albemarle road interchange. The massive project creates an interchange for the 40% of independence traffic that get off on albemarle. It also allows for easier easy entry/exit for Pierson Dr (a back route to Monroe Rd and the neighborhoods and stores on both sides of independence).

The huge big box shopping center Amity Gardens that used to have haverty's should be much easier to get to when this project is done. Is there any hope that this huge center will be rebuilt and re-leased when the interchange opens?

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=charlotte&ll...07693&t=k&hl=en

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i agree that they should have closed more driveway access points... but i think they were pretending that those businesses would succeed along the corridor, where most of them are almost completely vacant as a result of the construction.

I think NCDOT/Charlotte/Whoever royally screwed up independence. They could have done many things that would have both preserved its longstanding use as a commercial highway AND provided bypass-style traffic movement. There are many better examples of how to do it elsewhere in the country. For example US19 through Pinellas county in Tampa Bay is still the commercial highway it always has been. They sectioned the outside lanes off so that they are like a service road/local road and the center lanes are express, and you can travel between them halfway between the intersections... but they simply put a bridge over the intersections so the through traffic can keep going, but the outside/local lanes come to traffic lights. That config seems to do a much better job of separating the slow commercial traffic from the fast through-traffic, and seems to waste a lot less land on loop ramps at the intersections.

I am definitely glad they have fixed the traffic jam ups between uptown and albemarle, though. That section isn't so bad to travel now, and will only be easier when they reopen turns onto albemarle.

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Funny how this article was by the Associated Press, yet it doesn't put an NC at the end of Charlotte. In another thread someone said once the AP is ready for recognition nationally/internationally then they will leave out the state at the end. Not saying it's worthy of international recognition, but I just found it a little funny, LOL! As far as this being in a Alabama newspaper, that is quite odd.

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i think that house bill is total bs. Especially if you figure that harris boulevard has very high capacity as an alternate route in the years while they are waiting for their stretch of 485 to be finished. The southern section has no alternate routes.

Why can't the delegates to the general assembly get their act together and find more road financing, or fix the numbers game that hurts the urban counties, rather than try to make a rule to prevent money from going to one of the most congested freeways in the state.

this is just petty politics, as i'm sure he was one of the people that did the secret handshake to allow the southern 485 widening to be in the outerbelt funds again but only if it didn't delay the north. too bad the north is being delayed so that fayetteville can get their loop, not because charlotte tried to squeeze 30m into the 10 year plan to add a lane that should have been built in the first place.

What do you guys think of higher gas taxes, such as, say, 10c/g extra gas taxes in the charlotte metro counties to pay for more roads/freeways? it could at least get us started on having our own taxes pay for our own regional needs.

My gosh, if we are talking about 25 years before we build the roads that are needed right now, when the heck will we build the roads we'll need when a million people live in this county in 20 years?

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i think that house bill is total bs.  Especially if you figure that harris boulevard has very high capacity as an alternate route in the years while they are waiting for their stretch of 485 to be finished.  The southern section has no alternate routes. 

Why can't the delegates to the general assembly get their act together and find more road financing, or fix the numbers game that hurts the urban counties, rather than try to make a rule to prevent money from going to one of the most congested freeways in the state. 

this is just petty politics, as i'm sure he was one of the people that did the secret handshake to allow the southern 485 widening to be in the outerbelt funds again but only if it didn't delay the north.  too bad the north is being delayed so that fayetteville can get their loop, not because charlotte tried to squeeze 30m into the 10 year plan to add a lane that should have been built in the first place. 

What do you guys think of higher gas taxes, such as, say, 10c/g extra gas taxes in the charlotte metro counties to pay for more roads/freeways?  it could at least get us started on having our own taxes pay for our own regional needs. 

My gosh, if we are talking about 25 years before we build the roads that are needed right now, when the heck will we build the roads we'll need when a million people live in this county in 20 years?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I agree DB. I would be totally behind say a 5% to 10% gas hike in CLT/MECK. And furthermore, I betcha it would pass in a referendum if given a chance to go before the public. That is how fed up CLT citizens are with the highways here. I have seen cities half the size of Charlotte have better hwy systems. On a side note the estimated population figures for Mecklenburg county in 2015 are around 900K. That is LESS than TEN years away. So twenty years is even a stretch. By then we could be looking at around 1.5 in the county alone. I think it will be a total nightmare if these guys (poititicians) do not come to some sort of consensus about what needs to be prioritized. The other bad side of that is that if traffic is a concern, or any lack of infastructure, it hurts local leaders from recruiting corporations and jobs here to the area. In the end, these petty games are going to hurt the tax base that is one of the best in the US. Heck, our bonds for the city are AAA rated. There are only a handful of other cities that hold that honor. I know Minneapolis is one of them.

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I agree DB. I would be totally behind say a 5% to 10% gas hike in CLT/MECK. And furthermore, I betcha it would pass in a referendum if given a chance to go before the public. That is how fed up CLT citizens are with the highways here. I have seen cities half the size of Charlotte have better hwy systems. On a side note the estimated population figures for Mecklenburg county in 2015 are around 900K. That is LESS than TEN years away. So twenty years is even a stretch. By then we could be looking at around 1.5 in the county alone. I think it will be a total nightmare if these guys (poititicians) do not come to some sort of consensus about what needs to be prioritized. The other bad side of that is that if traffic is a concern, or any lack of infastructure, it hurts local leaders from recruiting corporations and jobs here to the area. In the end, these petty games are going to hurt the tax base that is one of the best in the US. Heck, our bonds for the city are AAA rated. There are only a handful of other cities that hold that honor. I know Minneapolis is one of them.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

My bad my figures are off. Here are the right ones from the Chamber.

POPULATION PROJECTIONS

FOR MECKLENBURG COUNTY

2004- 2010

Year Population

2004 801,137

2005 829,978

2006 859,857

2007 890,812

2008 922,882

2009 956,105

2010 990,525

We will be at one million residents by 2010. :o Geeeeez, they better think of something fast.

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i know... it is completely nuts.

the fact that 77 won't be widened is perhaps the only thing that makes widening 485 in the south seem irrelevant. cars just will not be able to get through there. I suspect that South LRT will be packed as a result, but somehow people will blame the trains for the fact that 77 and 485 aren't widened... 77 will cost something like 2 billion to widen if i remember right :w00t:

Getting the 485 cars to the LRT, though, is the main reason i want that stretch to be widened. If people are stuck on 485, it might actually help meter 77 traffic, so people won't perceive a benefit to getting out of their cars into the trains.

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$600 millions for I-77 South is hard to find by 2030 with the current formula to determine highway projects. CDOT's dreams for I-77 is a HOV system between I-85 to I-277 (John Belk) prolly with their own exit/entrance with 5 regular through lanes in each direction. From the John Belk, it will be just a regular HOV with 5 through lanes in each direction to I-485.

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