Official: I-485 widening not enough
10:27 AM EDT on Wednesday, June 20, 2007
By MICHELLE BOUDIN / WCNC
E-mail Michelle:
MBoudin@WCNC.com
NCDOT talks about I-485 widening CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A Charlotte stretch of highway is called one of the worst in the state for congestion. But the same transportation officials who gave it that grade admit the only help they can offer won't be enough.
Interstate 485 from Interstate 77 to Johnston Road is jam-packed every morning and afternoon.
“Oh it's very congested, it's a nightmare at rush hour,” said driver Barbar Eudy.
Driver after driver, day after day, spend minute after minute watching the taillights in front of them.
Ray Eschert said, ”In the morning, quarter to 7 past 8:30, it is bumper to bumper.”
But the state did just give the green light to widen that six-mile stretch of I-485 to three lanes in each direction.
Department of Transportation Project Development Engineer James Bridges said at a citizens workshop Tuesday afternoon, “We’re making improvements to this -- will it be a complete fix? No.”
That's right, even the planners admit their plan is not going to work.
Bridges admits the road needs to be widened “yesterday,” but the work won’t actually begin until 2013, and he said three lanes won’t be enough. He said the state will likely add more lanes soon after completing the initial project – there just isn’t funding to do it all at once.
Eschert organized the Ballantyne Breakfast Club to fight for better roads into the area.
“I think they need to just bite the bullet and make a best attempt effort to do it right this time rather than come back and revisit it,” he said.
Some though think the construction will never catch up with the growth in the area.
“They could add two or three or five more lanes in each direction and I think we have enough traffic to fill it up,” Eudy said.
The current plan has construction beginning 2013 and it will take at least two years to complete.