Transportation
NCDOT: No economic impact study on I-77 toll plan
June 16. Like most NCDOT highway projects, it turns out the state did not conduct an economic impact study on the $650 million plan to widen I-77 between Lake Norman and Charlotte with the help of a public-private partnership. Addressing 75 business people and residents at the Business Today and Cornelius Today Newsmakers Breakfast today […]
Torrence Chapel Road study on Town Board agenda tonight
June 15. Cornelius commissioners are likely to give the go-ahead tonight to a $70,300 NCDOT study of the Torrence Chapel Road/West Catawba Avenue intersection. The town will pay $17,575 towards the study with the remainder covered by a state grant. The Town Board meeting begins at 7 pm, in Town Hall on Catawba Avenue. This […]
Leadership in I-77 opinion battle coming from citizens, companies
“You know, I would actually love to have Jim back. I personally think his contribution to avoiding the tolls could have been similar to the impact he had on Reval. We desperately needed the famous ‘Jim touch’ at NCDOT/CRTPO in recent months/years.” —Corenlius Commissoner Dave Gilroy on former colleague Jim Bensman Former Town Commissioner Jim […]
Sen. Tarte says Davidson toll resolution is helpful
June 10. By Dave Yochum. While it wasn’t as strong as toll opponents had hoped, the Town of Davidson has officially expressed its concerns with the NCDOT/Cintra plan to widen I-77 with toll lanes. A resolution drafted by Commissioner Jim Fuller with input from NC Sen. Jeff Tarte passed 4-0 in front of a packed house Tuesday night. […]
Cornelius to NCDOT: Tear Down This Contract
June 2. By Dave Vieser. The Cornelius Town Board unanimously passed a strongly worded resolution calling on the NCDOT to terminate its contract with Spanish based Cintra/I-77 Mobility Partners to build toll lanes on I-77. The board also said it would consider joining the lawsuit filed by Widen I-77 seeking to halt the toll lanes planned […]
Naas, Widen I-77 on Monday night Town Board agenda
May 29. UPDATE. You might call it a sea change—a broad transformation—that is under way at the upper levels of Cornelius power: Kurt Naas and the Widen I-77 lawsuit against the toll lanes is now on the agenda for discussion at Monday night’s Town Board meeting. Naas will have 30 minutes to outline the suit which seeks […]
Tarte, Bradford look for support to ditch tolls
May 28. By Dave Yochum. Speaking at the “Emergency Call to Action” for Lake Norman business owners, UNC-Charlotte Professor Emeritus David Hartgen said plans to widen I-77 with tolls will have dire effects on traffic both on and around 77. “Your local streets are going to be crammed full. The congestion on the feeder roads and the parallel […]
Lake Norman Chamber Chairman speaks out on I77 Toll Lanes
Letter to the editor As a resident of the Town of Huntersville for 16 years, I have spent enough time in I-77 traffic that I could have learned a foreign language or two! Since 2011, I have served on the Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and currently serve as Board Chair. During […]
Businesses lining up to attend I-77 summit Thursday
May 27. Concerned Lake Norman business owners are expected to converge on Michael Waltrip Raceworld in Cornelius Thursday for an “emergency call to action” in the wake of NCDOT’s rushed signing of a 50-year contract to build tolls on I-77. I-77 Mobility Partners, a unit of Cintra, based in Spain, has been told “not to […]
