NCDOT leverages West End reconnections to gain I-77 support
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The Oaklawn bridge concept. Rendering: NCDOT
The N.C. Department of Transportation unveiled "feasible" plans to reconnect Charlotte's West End across I-77 to the rest of the city, including a highway cap and new green spaces.
Why it matters: The agency is effectively using those long-sought reconnection projects as a bargaining chip to preserve support for widening the same highway that divided the historically Black neighborhoods decades ago.
State of play: NCDOT is aggressively defending the I-77 project as some city council members signal they're ready to formally reconsider their support for the tolls.
- "Why is it that in the 11th hour, we have renderings?" asks Raki McGregor, chair of the Black Political Caucus's transportation committee.
- The department held a briefing with reporters on Wednesday to address what it called "sensationalism" and "narratives" around the project, emphasizing the corridor's high crash rate and congestion.
Between the lines: NCDOT has not confirmed funding for the reconnection projects. However, NCDOT says bundling them into the express lanes project could allow the agency to complete the side projects "faster and more efficiently."
- State law requires NCDOT to prioritize projects on a scoring system, through which it has already approved $600 million for the toll lanes.
- If the "Reconnecting Communities" projects were pursued as a typical bike-and-pedestrian project, "they would only be eligible for a smaller pot of funds that would likely not cover the costs," NCDOT says.
Zoom in: NCDOT is studying six areas where it could reconnect the west side along the I-77 corridor using multimodal bridges or highway caps. At a council committee meeting on Monday, it shared two examples:
- The Oaklawn Bridge needs to be rebuilt. NCDOT says it could widen it 100 feet with bike and walking paths, plant trees and build greenway connections underneath.
- At Fifth and Trade streets, near Ray's Splash Planet, NCDOT has envisioned a lid over I-77 general-purpose lanes, with recreational fields on top and the elevated toll lanes above. (Similar land caps have been pursued in other cities, like Dallas, to create parkland over problematic highway infrastructure.)
Zoom out: For years, the City of Charlotte has also studied redesigns of its own for the I-77 interchanges near Wesley Heights. In 2023, the U.S. Department of Transportation awarded the city $1 million from its "Reconnecting Communities" program.
- Those plans have never been tied to the toll lanes project. But the city told Axios it has no funding for construction. Moving forward would require public and private investments. Or, the city said, the I-77 project could be a "critical" next step for reconnecting the West End.
The bottom line: It's unclear whether the reconnection plans remain on the table if Charlotte rescinds support for widening the highway that divided them in the first place.
Oaklawn Bridge concept
Fifth and Trade cap
