The Raleigh City Council got its first look Tuesday afternoon at for converting a ten-mile stretch of Capital Boulevard into a toll highway.
The presentation, by the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO), and the North Carolina Turnpike Authority, was the latest turn in a project that has been talked about for decades. An earlier iteration, first proposed in the early 2010s, would spend about $93 million to turn Capital Boulevard into a four-lane highway between Interstate 540 and Purnell Road in Wake Forest. But problems with funding delayed the project five times, according to CAMPO Executive Director Chris Lukasina.
"Inflation has kicked in," he told the council. "Rising costs outside of inflation have kicked in within the transportation sector as well."
The cheapest option this time around? About $1.6 billion. And that's just to convert a portion of the corridor to an expressway. Tolls, Lukasina said, would allow the project to be complete by 2040 as uncertainty lingers over federal and state transportation funding.
"If we are going to go without tolls, then we are going to trust that this project will be delivered on time," he said. "And if it's not, then say, by 2040, we may still not have any improvements out there and continued growth and continued congestion in that corridor, which, in and of itself is a toll."
The four options involve either toll express lanes or a fully tolled highway, built in phases or a single stage. After the presentation, council members and Raleigh Mayor Janet Cowell agreed that tolls are likely the best option for getting the project built. However, Council member Megan Patton said people who live in her northeast Raleigh district are concerned about paying to drive on a road they use every day.
"This is how they get to their schools and their grocery stores and their churches," she said. "So, I am getting a lot of consternation from my residents about the idea of tolling the road that they have no other option to use."
In response, Lukasina said the proposals include frontage or service roads for local use, along with bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure.
Council member Mitchell Silver said he was frustrated by the delays in the project but is glad to see it finally moving forward.
"We all know that road infrastructure is probably the most heavily subsidized infrastructure on the face of the planet, and so to look at a model looks at tolling, to me, is the right way to go," he said.
CAMPO will hold public meetings on the options on April 30 at Abbott's Creek Community Center and May 5 at the Renaissance Center in Wake Forest. The CAMPO Executive Board will vote on its preferred option May 21, with the goal of beginning construction in 2027.
