$16.4M walking bridge begins construction, expect delays on I-277
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Rendering: Courtesy of City of Charlotte
Charlotte drivers should brace for traffic disruptions on I-277 over the next two-and-a-half years as work starts on a pedestrian bridge over the interstate.
Why it matters: The long-awaited biking and walking bridge will close a gap in the rail trail, connecting South End to Uptown.
The latest: When initially planned, this project was supposed to open in 2022 at a cost of $11 million.
- It's now anticipated to open in spring 2028, and the construction price has risen to $16.4 million.
Driving the news: The City of Charlotte, Charlotte Center City Partners and U.S. Bank held a "kickoff" Tuesday morning to mark the highly anticipated start of construction, which begins any day now.
- "I-277 has felt like a dividing line — a stretch of highway that made two connected communities feel just a little bit too far apart," said Charlotte's mayor pro tem Dante Anderson, whose District 1 includes Uptown and Dilworth. "But today, that changes."
Zoom in: The bridge will create a route from Brooklyn Village station to the existing trail under the East Morehead Street bridge. Right now, the trail in South End cuts off abruptly.
- The 16-foot-wide, 280-foot-long bridge will feature two arches, with cables and "aesthetic" lighting.
- "This will be more than a bridge," said Michael Smith, president and CEO of Center City Partners. "It will be iconic architecture."
What to expect: Intermittent lane and ramp closures.
- Many closures will occur at night to minimize disruptions. There will also be two weekends when 277 shuts down entirely for crews to install the bridge. The city is promising to share plenty of advance notice, but says it doesn't have dates to share yet.
- To begin, crews will start work on the center structures that will hold the bridge up in the middle of 277, and then work their way outward.
- The city will share information as closures near for drivers to plan ahead.
Between the lines: The construction timeline may seem long for a single bridge. But Dan Leaver, assistant division manager for engineering services, told Axios that building a structure over an active interstate requires intentional sequencing and abundant safety precautions.
- "There's only certain things we can do at one time," he says. "If they had a site and they could just go in and build it and have no obstructions, they probably could do it a lot faster."
Catch up quick: U.S. Bank announced a $1 million contribution to the project in 2019. The Minneapolis-based bank has been expanding its presence here in recent years and now employs more than 1,400 people locally, most recently with the opening of a South End bank branch in the old Fuel Pizza spot.
- Together, private funders — ArtPlace America, Asana Partners, Crescent Communities, Portman Holdings and Whole Foods — contributed $507,942. An anonymous funder provided $500,000, according to Center City Partners.
- Other funding partners are the City of Charlotte ($10.9 million), N.C. Department of Transportation ($3.2 million), Mecklenburg County ($3.1 million) and the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization ($1.9 million).
- The construction start date has been postponed several times for various reasons, including rising costs, bureaucratic red tape, the complexities of public-private partnership and the need to reengineer plans.
Flashback: The last time Charlotte had a highway project of this magnitude, so close to Uptown, was the I-277/South Boulevard interchange reconfiguration in the 2000s.
Editor's note: We've updated this story with details about the funding.