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Deadline looms to fix burned-out lights on Charlotte interstates

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — North Carolina Department of Transportation officials promised to make the drive to work safer for thousands of Charlotte commuters in October.

They unveiled a big plan to spend millions on repairing all the lights that burned out on busy interstates.

NCDOT officials promised to fix the lights by March but with the deadline now looming, some drivers are asking, what happened?

"It's definitely a safety concern," said driver Matthew Wright.

Video of the I-277 interchange taken overnight showed just how dark it is in areas without working street lights. Unless a driver is passing by, it's hard to see anything.

"There are just large spots of blackness out there still," Wright described.

Wright drives through the I-277 interchange for work every day.

He also travels a long, dark stretch of I-85 on his way toward University City.

Another heavily traveled area that's still in the dark is I-77 near Nations Ford Road and Tyvola Road.

Channel 9 has investigated this problem for years.

In October, we discovered 900 of the lights along interstates were burned out in Mecklenburg County.

[NCDOT plans to illuminate dark interstates in Charlotte area]

NCDOT officials pledged to throw $31 million into the project that was supposed to light up those dark stretches.

Instead, the visible lack of progress is just lighting even more frustrations in drivers.

"Empty promises, that's never good from the government, but unfortunately, that's the case sometimes," driver Eric Alessi said.

NCDOT officials told Channel 9 they understand drivers are frustrated, but they say even if you can't see crews on the job, the work on the lights is still underway. They're asking drivers to be patient while they wait.

"Please get it done. Please fulfill your promise to us and make Charlotte a safer place,” Wright said.

Even after NCDOT has replaced all the interstate lights, the lamps in the toll lane construction zone north of Uptown still won't be repaired until that enormous project is finished.

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