CRTPO Cancels I‐77 South Express Lanes Mid‐Procurement

After more than a decade of planning, and while the project was in mid-procurement, the I-77 South Express Lanes project has been cancelled in North Carolina. The cancellation came from a surprise board vote in May by the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization (CRTPO), the local Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO). The CRTPO Board just voted to approve the very same express lane project in October 2024. The reversal came a few days after the Charlotte City Council voted to withdraw its support for the project. Charlotte controls a plurality of board votes at CRTPO (approximately 40%).

At this time, it appears that the project will not be coming back. The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) has confirmed that the state will be removing the project from its transportation plans. It also plans to reallocate the $600 million it was planning to spend on the project, as well as another $100 million in transportation project funding for other projects in Charlotte. It appears the I-77 South Express Lanes will be added to a long and growing list of cancelled American public-private partnerships.

The I-77 South Express Lanes project would have added two express lanes in each direction along I-77 from the end of the current I-77 North Express Lanes to the South Carolina border – a stretch of approximately 8.4 miles. NCDOT estimated that a P3 to deliver the project would cost $3.2 billion back when CRTPO voted to approve the project in 2024. The express lanes on the I-77 North project have been in operation since 2020. NCDOT procured that project via a 50-year concession awarded in 2014 to I-77 Mobility Partners, a concessionaire led by Cintra.