The latest plan to help reduce traffic congestion around the fast growing city of Charlotte in North Carolina is to build a stretch of elevated express lanes for one of the city’s busiest highways. Around 18km of express lanes would be constructed under the plan put forward by the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT). The work would be carried out for the I-77 route, which runs north and south of the city and carries heavy traffic volumes, with a projected cost of £3.2 billion.
The plan is not without its detractors. People living along the proposed alignment are concerned over the disruption that will be generated by this extensive construction project. And there are concerns too over the additional cost of building elevated lanes as well as the charges drivers will pay to use them once commissioned. New bus lanes have been put forward as possible alternatives to the new raised express lanes, with some claiming these would deliver a better return on investment along with lower levels of transport emissions.
According to NCDOT, building the proposed elevated express lanes will require less land for the construction work, maximising the use of already available road space. Work on the project is not scheduled to commence until 2030, with the approvals and permission process and sourcing financing likely to take some time, even before tendering can be initiated.
