Over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays many people travel by car to visit relatives or simply to go on vacation. There are few things less pleasant than driving through road construction projects, with all the hassles and potential delay that entails.

While there are significant road projects under way in all parts of the state, Charlotte is especially affected this year. Three of the five major routes into the city are being rebuilt.

It would seem logical that the scope of these reconstruction projects should extend outward in coming years, moving out toward Monroe, Concord, Kannapolis, and Statesville. This largely is not the case, however, future holiday travel seasons along these corridors will be mainly construction-free. Of course, main roads won’t be able to handle more traffic either.

The major road reconstruction projects in Charlotte:

• Interstate 85 in northeast Charlotte is being widened from four to eight lanes. The eight-mile stretch of road should be completed in late 2004.

The N.C. DOT plans to eventually widen all 170 miles of I-85 from Kings Mountain to Durham to six or eight lanes. Large portions of the project are already done. A new stretch of road that will carry I-85 around rather than through Greensboro may be open as soon as January. The last portions of I-85 in Durham also are being rebuilt.

I-85 is being widened to eight lanes also in the Salisbury area. The project covers 13 miles and will cost $237 million. Some portions of the project are already complete; an additional few miles should be done in about a year. The work on the final stretch will begin shortly.

In 2006, work is to begin on widening the remaining seven miles of unimproved interstate north of Salisbury (Exit 81 to Exit 87.)

Despite the rapid growth of both Concord and Kannapolis, widening the 19-mile stretch of I-85 between the Mecklenburg County line and the U.S. 29-601 connector south of Salisbury (Exits 49 to 68) will not happen soon. No funds for the $200 million project are available for at least the next seven years.

• The N.C. DOT is rebuilding U.S. 74/Independence Blvd in east Charlotte — the state’s busiest non-interstate — into an expressway. Progress has been slow, as the high price of land limits how much the state can afford to do. The road is being rebuilt at the Albemarle Road (N.C. 27) intersection. When that project is complete in about a year, only four miles of U.S. 74 would have been redone over the past 15 years. Work on the next portion, a 1.4-mile stretch that will cost $108.4 million to widen, is scheduled to begin in 2009. Further improvements are unfunded at this time.

In neighboring Union County, the situation on US 74 is little better. The N.C.DOT does have money set aside to build a bypass around Monroe. It does not, however, have the environmental permits needed to start construction and may not obtain them for some time.

• Motorists traveling between Charlotte and Statesville on I-77 also can’t expect many further road upgrades in the short- to medium term despite the road already being overburdened. The widening of I-77 from I-85 in Charlotte to the future I-485 interchange south of Huntersville will be complete next year. The N.C. DOT is also examining adding lanes on a priority basis to a two-mile stretch of I-77 north of the I-485 interchange. If it does not do so, a severe bottleneck will arise on northbound I-77 when I-485 opens in 2007.

The N.C. DOT also has just completed a study of widening the remaining 27 miles of I-77 from northern Mecklenburg County to Statesville to eight lanes. The improvements would cost an estimated $600 million. There’s no timetable for the project. It’s not even on the state’s official transportation priority list yet. The high cost comes from the need to replace or expand 22 bridges and the causeways on which the road is situated as it crosses Lake Norman.

Mike Lowrey is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.