Charlotte region transportation board maintains decision to kill I-77 toll support
The Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization is maintaining its decision to end support for the funding agreement for the Interstate 77 South toll lane project for now after a motion to reopen the discussion failed Wednesday night.
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It comes just a month after the Charlotte City Council and CRTPO voted to rescind support for the controversial, $3.2 billion project. NCDOT committed $600 million to the project and already has spent about $64 million.
James Kerr, who represents Monroe, made the motion to add reconsidering the vote to Wednesday’s agenda. It comes after the Monroe City Council voted earlier on Wednesday to direct its representative to reverse its vote in May to rescind support for the I-77 South project’s funding agreement.
“I think it would be beneficial to the board to have more input on this item,” Kerr said. “A little bit of time has passed and certainly there’s a tremendous amount of information that’s been disseminated.”
But the push to reopen the discussion failed with Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, Matthews and Davidson voting against the motion. CRTPO uses a weighted vote system and Charlotte makes up about 41% of the vote.
“I am not going to support the motion because it’s not clear to me the outcome of the vote will be different,” said Ed Driggs, who represents Charlotte on CRTPO.
But it remains unclear if this is the last of the controversial project.
The decision Wednesday night comes after Republican state Sen. Vickie Sawyer drafted legislation that could require Charlotte and other local governments to repay $64 million to the state. Local governments who do not pay would lose Powell bill funding, which is used for street resurfacing, and new state funding for road projects.
The measure would’ve also blocked NCDOT from removing the project from its prioritization list until Jan. 1.
Matthews Attorney Daniel Peterson called the move “unlawful” in a memo released Tuesday.
“Whether one agrees with the I-77 South project is beside the point,” Peterson said. “The Sawyer Amendment offends due process, attacks local governments for listening to constituents, violates the rights of local elected officials to vote their conscience without fear of unconstitutional retribution, and seeks to impose the already immense power of the North Carolina General Assembly to coerce a result on a federally-mandated cooperative process.”
But Sawyer held off on adding the amendment to House Bill 1094, a tangential bill requiring an audit of NCDOT’s ferry division. She said in the state senate’s transportation committee on Wednesday that the I-77 South toll lanes project is expected to be removed from the State Transportation Improvement Program, or STIP, list by August. Leaving it on the list could put other state projects at risk due to finances not being properly balanced, according to Sawyer.
She added that the language in the drafted amendment was not a “hollow threat.”
“This is as friendly as I can be — a warning — to all of you to reconsider,” Sawyer said.
Leigh Altman, Mecklenburg County Commissioner and CRTPO member, said she remains convinced that the proposed amendment by Sawyer was “unconstrained by law.”
“It sets a very dangerous precedent what has been attempted here,” she said. “This legislation proposes to retroactively punish lawful conduct by putting us all in the position of having financial liabilities for our constituents and the taxpayer for actions that were lawful when they were undertaken.”
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She added it also sets a terrible precedent that strips officials of their abilities to reject a NCDOT project once plans are made public and residents voice discontent.
Altman said the community should be allowed time for an alternative analysis that can review what was proposed by NCDOT.
“I don’t see why in this interim period when we are trying to do our due diligence and build consensus, that any rash actions need to be taken,” she said.
Driggs said while some could feel threatened by the proposed amendment, it did give until January before the project was decidedly killed.
“The position I’m taking tonight is that I would hope that (the state) can give us until January and that we will have the opportunity to respond to the issues that have been raised by the opponents of this project,” he told the Observer.
Driggs added a study should be conducted to review all possible solutions to addressing congestion and community concerns. But he cautioned against making more moves that could draw the ire of the General Assembly.
“We need to tread very carefully here in terms of pressuring the state to respond to criticism and opposition but not then end the entire conversation,” Driggs said.
Whether or not CRTPO will have enough time to reverse the decision made in May is uncertain.
Tony Lathrop, a CRTPO member and chairman of the North Carolina Board of Transportation, said absent any legislation or significant change his board is set to discuss removing the project from the STIP in July. The board will then vote on removing the project on August 8.
NCDOT planned toll lanes on an 11-mile stretch from uptown to the South Carolina border to address crashes and congestion on I-77. According to NCDOT, I-77 South has the state’s highest congestion levels, seeing more than 160,000 cars a day.
The long-discussed project had been in the works since 2007, with a private-public funding agreement approved in 2024. But the project drew increasing scrutiny from residents after preliminary designs were released in November.
Opponents said it would significantly damage historically Black neighborhoods who bore the brunt of growth before. Others questioned the need for toll lanes.
Residents also called for more transparency and engagement from NCDOT. But despite efforts from the agency, trust between residents and NCDOT had already broken down over the last several months.
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Reporters Nick Sullivan and Desiree Mathurin contributed to this story.
This story was originally published June 17, 2026 at 6:57 PM.
