CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The debate over I-77 tolls is heating up again.
Wednesday night, a local transportation board debated an unsolicited proposal from a private company to build toll lanes from Uptown Charlotte to the South Carolina border.
Members of the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization decided to take more time to think about the proposal.
The board will ask a technical committee to research the feasibility of a project and come back in September.
Some board members disagreed with the decision, saying the CRTPO shouldn’t consider a secretive proposal from an unknown company.
Some members also have a bad taste in their mouth after the controversial I-77 toll lane project from Charlotte to Davidson.
For those toll lanes, the state signed a contract with Spanish firm Cintra, that prevents new free lanes from being built for 50 years.
“I am not over it. This sounds like it could be the same thing all over again. And the people in the North have not forgotten it at all. And so I think we need to do better, we need to show more transparency,” said board member Pat Cotham, during Wednesday night’s meeting.