Planners offer ideas for uptown freeway loop

As Charlotte mulls how to retool its uptown freeway loop, city transportation planners have put 22 ideas on the table.

The planners, who held a public workshop last week and provided the list to PlanCharlotte.org on Tuesday, are envisioning ways to overhaul the 6.5 miles of Interstate 77 and I-277 that encircle uptown and studying which of those 22 ideas to nominate for a 2040 regional transportation plan.

The ideas, which are potential concepts and not formal proposals, are intended to relieve congestion, provide longer ramps, improve safety and keep drivers from having to quickly weave between lanes.

The list:

• Eliminate Carson Boulevard ramp at I-277
• Provide I-77 to Wilkinson Boulevard access using a new ramp
• Provide I-77 to I-277 access using a new ramp
• Eliminate freeway access to and from Freedom Drive
• Provide I-277 to I-77 access using a new flyover ramp
• Eliminate Wilkinson Boulevard loop at I-77
• Eliminate Morehead Street ramps at I-77
• Eliminate Trade Street loops at I-77
• Relocate I-77 on-ramp from Fifth Street to Trade Street
• Replace I-77/Fifth Street off-ramp with a loop
• Improve weaving section along I-77 between Fifth Street and I-277
• Eliminate Brookshire Freeway loop at I-77
• Improve access between I-77 and I-277
• Eliminate Graham Street ramps at I-277
• Improve Church Street ramps at I-277
• Eliminate College Street off-ramps at I-277
• Eliminate Brevard Street/Caldwell Street on-ramps at I-277
• Relocate I-277 ramps from Davidson Street to Caldwell Street
• Replace I-277/Fourth Street loop with an off-ramp (eliminating the need for drivers to navigate what’s currently a tricky U-turn)
• Improve Independence Boulevard off-ramp from Belk freeway onto U.S. 74 to eliminate a weaving problem
• Relocate I-277/Third Street on-ramp
• Eliminate Stonewall Street loop accessing I-277 near Kenilworth Avenue

City staff and consultants next plan to consider feedback from last week’s meeting and evaluate which concepts or groups of concepts would provide the most long-lasting, cost-effective benefits, city transportation planner Norm Steinman said.

The Mecklenburg-Union Metropolitan Planning Organization, which oversees the area’s long-range transportation plans, must adopt a 2040 plan by April 2014, he said.

Meanwhile, others are pondering a more radical idea: What if the loop didn’t exist at all?

A group of planners and residents gathered to consider that possibility Tuesday night during an event organized by the Civic By Design Forum at Levine Museum of the New South. The forum is a nonprofit group that aims to encourage civic debate on urban design issues.

Organizer Tom Low began by presenting two examples from other cities:

• New Orleans, where civic activists and planners have pushed for removing an elevated expressway over Claiborne Avenue and creating a surface-level boulevard tied into the regular street grid.
• Vienna, which in the 1800s tore down walls and other military fortifications that once protected the city and replaced them with the Ringstrasse, a renowned avenue of streetcars, parks and grand buildings that Low said fosters social activity. 

Low challenged participants to think boldly about how Charlotte might use the loop’s space if the spaghetti-like array of ramps and freeways was gone. “If it went away completely, what would you want to do here?” he asked.

After forming small groups, participants discussed ideas such as creating a greenway or boulevard along all or part of the loop’s path.

Low said he could envision blocking off such a corridor for auto or bicycle races. That type of grand thinking will be required, he said, if the notion of making Charlotte’s loop into a destination for people rather than a conduit for vehicles is to gain momentum.

“It really has to be a powerful vision,” Low said.

Steinman, who attended Tuesday’s meeting, said he doubts such ideas would score highly in the system MUMPO uses to prioritize proposals.

Transportation funding is very competitive, he said in an interview Wednesday, and city officials want to nominate only projects likely to be ranked highly in MUMPO’s system, which evaluates proposed projects based on criteria including economic, social, environmental and safety impacts.

“If the project doesn’t do something about moving people – and yes, cars – it’s not going to do very well,” Steinman said.

Larger PDF images of concept maps available:

Top map (Kennilworth to Independence Blvd)

Brookshire Freeway concept map from Graham Street to Davidson Street

Concept map for I-77 from Belk Freeway to Trade Street

Concept map for I-77 from Trade to Brookshire Freeway