Raleigh City Council reluctantly endorses making part of US 1 a toll road
The Raleigh City Council has endorsed charging tolls on Capital Boulevard between Interstate 540 and Wake Forest, but, as some council members made clear, not enthusiastically.
The tolls will allow the N.C. Department of Transportation to accelerate plans to turn the congested four-lane road into a six-lane expressway, with interchanges instead of traffic lights.
Without tolls, NCDOT doesn't anticipate having money to begin building the expressway until 2031, a decade later than originally planned. Rising costs and competition from other projects across the state forced the delay, NCDOT officials say; the latest estimate is that converting 10 miles of Capital/U.S. 1 to an expressway would cost $1.34 billion.
'With what's going on in Western North Carolina, that really is just a projection,' said city transportation planning manager Kenneth Ritchie, referring to the rebuilding after Hurricane Helene. 'Certainly costs will continue to increase and impact this project the longer that it draws out.'
Under the option backed by the City Council on Tuesday, construction could begin in 2027 and be completed by early 2033.
'There are implications to saying no,' council member Mitchell Silver said. 'Doing nothing will be unsustainable long term.'
The tolls would be collected by the N.C. Turnpike Authority, a branch of NCDOT. At the request of regional transportation planners, the authority studied tolling and presented four scenarios, all four of which would result in the six-lane limited-access highway:
▪ Scenario 1: Tolling the entire 10-mile stretch from I-540 north through Wake Forest as a standalone toll road. Would raise an estimated $800 million.
▪ Scenario 2: Tolling the entire 10 miles but adding it to the N.C. Turnpike system, which would allow the state to borrow more money. Would generate an estimated $1.4 billion.
▪ Scenario 3: Build and toll one express lane in each direction, again as a standalone toll road. The existing four-lane road would remain free. Would raise an estimated $100 million.
▪ Scenario 4: Build and toll one express lane in each direction and add them to the N.C. Turnpike system. With the additional borrowing power, the lanes would generate an estimated $600 million.
The Turnpike Authority didn't provide specific toll costs, but said the rates for a fully tolled expressway would be similar to what drivers pay to use the Triangle Expressway in southern Wake County. This year, drivers with an NC Quick Pass pay about 23 cents a mile, though the rates rise a bit each year. The toll rates for the express lanes would vary during the day, depending on traffic.
Council vote wasn't close
The City Council voted 7-1 to back Scenario 2, in part because it would generate the most money. Opposing tolls was Megan Patton, whose district straddles Capital Boulevard north of I-540 and who said her constituents are generally opposed to the expressway itself.
'When I've taken this out to the community, every resident I've spoken to understands that no toll means no build,' Patton said. 'And for them that seems to resonate as being the better option than any of the tolled scenarios.'
Patton understood, though, that the council would back tolls and the expressway. She urged that the tolls be cheaper at night or off-peak hours and that the road be designed to accommodate bus rapid transit in the future.
At-large council member Jonathan Lambert-Melton indicated that he'd also heard from residents who questioned tolling the road. Lambert-Melton said he believed the project would move ahead with tolls anyway and that it was more a matter of which scenario the council wanted to endorse.
'People keep saying, 'Why do you want to put tolls on Capital Boulevard?' This is the N.C. Department of Transportation,' he said. 'This is not any of us saying, 'Let's go ahead and add toll lanes to a city road' or anything like that.'
The council's endorsement will be passed on to the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, which does transportation planning. The CAMPO board, which includes representatives from cities, towns and counties in and around Wake County, will make the final decision on whether to ask the Turnpike Authority to toll Capital Boulevard.
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