CHARLOTTE — For the first time, we are hearing from N.C. Department of Transportation officials after the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization voted to bring back the controversial toll lane project from Uptown to South Carolina.
“We just got to restart it,” NCDOT Chair Tony Lathrop said. “We need to have a process, an inclusive process with the community.”
Lathrop was one of the featured speakers at the South Charlotte Partners Transportation Summit Tuesday morning. After four months on the shelf, work is just now getting started again, which includes reopening a community engagement center.
Lathrop touted the minimum $300 million in community benefits that will come from the private sector as a condition of this project moving forward.
“I think it’s unique to this project and that will come from the developers,” he said. “It won’t be state money.”
NCDOT’s agreement with Charlotte City Council calls for:
- A minimum of $150 million to cap and stitch part of the highway
- At least $30 million to address food insecurity on the Beatties Ford Road, Statesville Avenue and West Boulevard corridors
- $50 million for a rec center in the Steele Creek and Nations Ford area.
As NCDOT starts laying the groundwork for the project to restart, south Charlotte resident Matt Britt says it is important people who live along I-77 stay seated at the table.
“We do not, in any way, form, shape, or fashion want to ignore the history and the challenges there, and we want to make sure it’s done right,” he said
©2026 Cox Media Group
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/LH3JSJEF3VBLRJLJQESEAG34AM.png)
