The Daily Journal is highlighting arguments for and against toll lanes for Interstate 77. Thursday’s column offered an argument for toll lanes. Today’s Daily Journal offers an alternative view.
CHARLOTTE — An argument can be made supporting public-private partnerships (P3) in transportation, since it appears government cannot and perhaps should not go it alone. However, the proposed P3 toll solution for Interstate 77 in Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Iredell County is unacceptable from two perspectives.
First, it contemptuously disregards a commitment made over two decades ago for general-purpose lanes subsequently paid for via the highest state gas taxes in the South. Second, and more important, it is designed literally to maximize profit for a foreign company — not to serve existing citizens, businesses and future economic development. All this while committing the state to a 50-year contract with noncompete clauses prohibiting us from adding capacity when the inevitable failure occurs.
Traffic congestion in the corridor is intense. I-77 is near capacity in its four-lane sections, and backups regularly congest other sections. The cost to citizens in wasted time and fuel is unfair and unwarranted. What was a 30-minute commute a few years ago now takes an hour.
Proposed high-occupancy toll lanes will not fix this. The Department of Transportation’s own studies predict that since general-purpose lanes will not be widened for 50 years, travel times will be 90 percent longer and speeds will be cut in half. Essentially, congestion on general-purpose lanes of I-77 will double. This will cost the corridor $10 billion in lost travel time and untold headaches.
Without expansion of general-purpose lanes, commercial truck traffic — forbidden on HOT lanes — will dramatically increase driving on those general-purpose lanes. They will clog smaller arteries, drive up local delivery costs and speed the destruction of roads not intended to carry such loads.
Then there is the issue of tolls burdening the middle class. The initial one-way, peak-hour tolls for the full length of the commute will be about $10. In 20 years, HOT tolls are estimated to be about $20, or about $0.90/mile. Over the project life, 50 years, about $10 billion will be removed from the corridor in the form of tolls sent to Spain, home of the toll road’s private operator.
The negative impact on the corridor will be enormous. Regional development will slow as firms and residents seek less congested locations. With no direct ingress or egress from toll lanes to existing exits, local businesses will lose valuable interstate traffic they depend on and paid dearly for when siting buildings.
Additionally, the numerous logistical problems due to restricted access include: no direct exit from toll lanes to regional hospitals and emergency rooms, unknown remedies for emergency evacuations, and the inability to avoid blocked lanes when accidents occur. Most absurd of all, the design abandons 30 years of land use and development based on the assumption that DOT would fulfill its promises. There is no direct exit from toll lanes to housing developments and retail centers built using current I-77 exits. Citizens deserve better from government.
So what is to be done? Federal law gives the state, not the metropolitan planning organization, the decision responsibility for this project. The HOT lane contract should be canceled and DOT directed to fully investigate other straightforward widening options. Score these alternatives using the same scoring as for other road projects. In the meantime, open the present empty HOV lane to general traffic now to relieve present congestion. Look at adding one more general-purpose lane in each direction to the current HOV lane south of Huntersville, and two general-purpose lanes north of there to Mooresville.
DOT’s stated goals include “providing great customer service, delivering infrastructure effectively and efficiently, improving (system) reliability and connectivity, and promoting economic growth.” We ask that DOT meet the goal by canceling the ill-advised HOT lane project on I-77 and implementing sensible timely alternatives.
Jim Puckett represents District 1 on the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners.