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Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
23,814 posts, read 34,684,299 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cjseliga
It's not about population, in a perfect world I would love to see I-85 be a minimum of 3 lanes from Durham to Atlanta. They were never going to leave that 5.9 mile bottleneck on I-85 once they started widening the road from Charlotte to Lexington, plus like others have mentioned, $108 million to widen almost 6 miles to 4 lanes in each direction from 2 lanes is pretty darn cheap, around $18 million per mile. You're not going to change your point of view and I'm not going to change mine.
In 5 years the toll lane on I77 N will be in default. There is not enough traffic on I77 to pay the loan. I77N at the present is a disgrace. People are not going to pay$15.00 to $25.00 to ride on a 7 miles of toll road.
If Charlotte keeps growing like the last 4 years, it will be over 1 million in the city. The NCDOT has not prepared Charlotte for this, and The State and Charlotte will pay for this neglect.
For a City of over 820,000 we just got a direct road from I85 to the airport which is the 8 busiest airport in the USA.
US 74 has been under construction for 28 year and is nearing 8 miles of completion.
As the largest economy in North Carolina, the state looks at Charlotte as their money bank.
In 5 years the toll lane on I77 N will be in default. There is not enough traffic on I77 to pay the loan. I77N at the present is a disgrace. People are not going to pay$15.00 to $25.00 to ride on a 7 miles of toll road.
If it is a "disgrace," won't people pay it? Besides, I believe the $20 figure was for like 20 miles. If people use the toll lanes, then shouldn't that make traffic at least a little better than it would otherwise be in the general purpose lanes? The only good argument I've seen to combat that is I think I heard that the toll lanes would need to merge back into the general purpose lanes before exiting (although I'm not 100% sure if that's true).
With all the trucking, why in the heck didn't Cintra find a way to make trucks eligible? Seems like a big missed opportunity for 1) reducing congestion 2) making more toll money. Dumb on their part.
The only good argument I've seen to combat that is I think I heard that the toll lanes would need to merge back into the general purpose lanes before exiting (although I'm not 100% sure if that's true).
This is true based on what I heard last and they had a drawing of it. Sounded like in some cases say to take exit 35 or 28 whatever the # may be you may have to merge into general lanes quite a ways before the exit...does not sound well thought out or promising...
With all the trucking, why in the heck didn't Cintra find a way to make trucks eligible? Seems like a big missed opportunity for 1) reducing congestion 2) making more toll money. Dumb on their part.
I think the answer is that the new lanes will not be built to the same standards as general lanes. Less pavement and will not support as much weight, so no trucks.
Just another one of many reasons this project is very poorly conceived.
Currently, if you compare I-485 to Raleigh's inner and outer beltways (what's now completed), I-485 has a slight edge, less than 2 miles, but once Raleigh's outer beltway (I-540/NC-540) is completed, it will be actually be larger by 3 miles as compared to I-485.
I-485, 67.6 miles
I-540/NC-540 (once completed), 70.8 miles
I-540/NC-540 (now open), 41.4 miles; I-440/I-40 (inner beltway) 24.4 miles = 65.8 miles
Currently, if you compare I-485 to Raleigh's inner and outer beltways (what's now completed), I-485 has a slight edge, less than 2 miles, but once Raleigh's outer beltway (I-540/NC-540) is completed, it will be actually be larger by 3 miles as compared to I-485.
I-485, 67.6 miles
I-540/NC-540 (once completed), 70.8 miles
I-540/NC-540 (now open), 41.4 miles; I-440/I-40 (inner beltway) 24.4 miles = 65.8 miles
Does this include the number of lanes or are you just measuring linearly? How did you calculate this? I don't think you realize how little we spend on Charlotte's roads.
The department of transportation and it's regressive methodology for allocation has been traditionally dominated by anti-city good old boys. Fayetteville got an outerbelt before Charlotte. I don't think your calculation considers the amount of roadway available/# of lanes. Am I wrong?
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