Communities Asked for Transit and Capping on I-77 South. NCDOT Dismissed Both.

Elevated freeway infrastructure like this example from Dallas is structurally complex, expensive, and disruptive — yet was advanced for I-77 South while transit and capping alternatives were dismissed.

Sustain Charlotte strongly disputes the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s claim that it is “listening to the community” in its decision to move forward with double-decker toll lanes on the portion of I-77 South from the Belk to the Brookshire that will further divide Third and Fourth Wards in Uptown from Wesley Heights, Seversville, McCrorey Heights and other historically Black neighborhoods in West Charlotte.

In a press release issued yesterday, NCDOT announced it is advancing a devastating double-decker toll lane option, describing it as the “least impactful design” based on community input. Sustain Charlotte says that characterization does not reflect what residents and community organizations along the corridor experienced — or what the public record shows.

“NCDOT is pointing to years of meetings that did not include disclosure of the two toll-lane designs they considered” said Shannon Binns, Founder and Executive Director of Sustain Charlotte. “Most of the engagement they cite occurred before either of these designs was made public. You cannot meaningfully comment on impacts, tradeoffs, or alternatives if you are never shown what is actually being proposed.”

The two toll-lane designs — including an expensive and community-dividing double-decker option — were not publicly disclosed until November 4, 2025. The public was then given just 30 days to comment, the minimum input window required by law, despite the scale and permanence of the project. During that time, NCDOT held just two public meetings requesting feedback.

Since that disclosure, dozens of neighborhood organizations, faith groups, environmental advocates, and transportation organizations — including Sustain Charlotte — have urged NCDOT and regional leaders to pause and evaluate transit-based alternatives, such as express bus or rail options that could move more people, cost less, and cap instead of expanding the highway. Those alternatives were never studied — despite being the solutions that nearly all US cities have chosen to address growing congestion on their freeways, and end the decades of harm that their construction in the 1960s has caused.

“As of today, there is no publicly available record showing that NCDOT ever studied a transit-first alternative for I-77 South before recommending toll lanes,” Binns said. “Not studied and ruled out — simply not studied.”

Sustain Charlotte also takes issue with NCDOT’s dismissal of community requests to seriously explore capping or burying the most harmful portions of I-77.

In its press release, NCDOT compares I-77 South to megaprojects such as Boston’s Big Dig and Seattle’s Alaskan Way Tunnel, applies worst-case cost assumptions, and multiplies those figures across the full 11-mile corridor.

“We were not asking NCDOT to bury the entire corridor,” Binns said. “We were asking them to seriously study whether the most harmful segments of I-77 — where it cuts through established neighborhoods — could be capped or reconfigured, as cities across the country have done. What NCDOT offered instead was a back-of-the-envelope dismissal using worst-case examples. That’s not analysis. It’s avoidance.”

By proposing a double-decker elevated freeway, NCDOT has already accepted the cost and complexity of building a massive concrete structure capable of supporting multiple freeway lanes and shoulders above existing traffic. Structurally, that is comparable in scale and complexity to covering or partially burying sections of the roadway. The difference is not feasibility — it is impact.

An elevated freeway amplifies noise, pollution, shadow, and division. A capped or buried segment can reconnect neighborhoods, reduce harm, and create usable public space. NCDOT chose not to study those options in earnest, despite already committing to a structurally intensive solution.

Sustain Charlotte also notes that the proposed elevation applies only to the most urban, politically sensitive portion of the corridor, between the Belk interchange and Brookshire/NC-16. Outside that segment, NCDOT still plans to widen I-77 along much of the remaining 11 miles — requiring additional land takings and the loss of homes in existing historic neighborhoods, including Wilmore.

“Elevating one segment does not eliminate displacement — it simply shifts where it occurs,” Binns said. “Calling this the ‘least impactful’ option ignores their plan to widen and inflict severe community harm elsewhere along the corridor.”

Sustain Charlotte further challenges NCDOT’s cost argument. In dismissing capping or tunneling, the department cites costs it claims it cannot bear. Yet NCDOT has also stated it cannot afford the $3.2 billion toll lane project it is advancing, which is why it is pursuing a private, for-profit partnership.

“NCDOT cannot argue that community-repair options are infeasible because they are expensive, while simultaneously advancing a project they admit they cannot afford themselves,” Binns said. “If alternative funding models can be explored for toll lanes, they can also be explored for solutions that reduce harm instead of worsening it. NCDOT chose not to explore those options.”

Sustain Charlotte urges regional leaders, elected officials, and the media to distinguish between procedural outreach and substantive listening.

“Listening means being willing to study the solutions communities are asking for — and being willing to change course when the evidence points elsewhere,” Binns said. “What we are seeing instead is an agency moving forward with a predetermined solution and using the language of engagement to justify it. The communities along I-77 South deserve better.”

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