Project Overview
Planning and development are underway to upgrade 11 miles of I-77 from the South Carolina State Line to I-277/N.C. 16 (Brookshire Freeway).
The proposed improvements include the addition of express lanes or general purpose and express lanes, reconstruction of interchanges and non-interchange bridges, and addition of access points and direct connectors to the express lanes.
Per state law, toll projects in North Carolina must be requested and approved by the local planning organization. This project was submitted to state prioritization by the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization in 2014.
I-77 is a critical interstate that traverses Charlotte in the north-south direction. It is a major travel corridor for central and western North Carolina as well as the southeastern United States for the movement of both people and goods. Locally, it serves as the most traveled route providing direct access to Uptown Charlotte for residents and businesses. With its current traffic demand, travel times on this segment of I-77 range from 10 minutes to nearly an hour depending on the time of day and direction of travel.
The purpose of the proposed project is to manage congestion by providing an option for reliable travel time along I-77, implement managed lanes consistent with recommendations from the
Fast Lanes Study and
Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization’s 2050 Metropolitan Transportation Plan and improve traffic operations by increasing travel speed and increasing throughput along I-77.
Additional benefits include reducing congestion-related crashes, supporting planned economic growth, encouraging transit usage to improve air quality and enhancing the regional express lanes network with connections to existing express lanes on I-77 and I-485.
Learn More about Express Lanes in N.C.
Project Funding
This project is listed as Project I-5718 in the
N.C. Department of Transportation's State Transportation Improvement Program and is included as two segments.
- Segment A – North Carolina/South Carolina State Line to I-277/US 74 (Belk Freeway)
o Funded for Preliminary Engineering only in current STIP*
- Segment B – I-277/US 74 (Belk Freeway) to I-277/NC 16 (Brookshire Freeway)
o Segment not funded in current STIP*
* Funding is subject to change in the upcoming 2026-2035 STIP