The Charlotte City Council has voted in favor of the I-77 Express Lanes PPP project, which will be sent the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization. 

The US$647 million project will be developed on a design, build, finance, operate and maintain (DBFOM) basis. The 50-year concession starts from the date the infrastructure opens to traffic.

Ferrovial, through a consortium led by its subsidiary Cintra Infraestructuras, was awarded the PPP project in April 2014. Commercial closure was achieved last summer and the financial closure was achieved in May 2015.

In December 2015 we reported that British infrastructure developer John Laing has acquired for US$25 million a minority shareholding in I-77 Mobility Partners (I-77 MP), the company that will develop the project.

The project includes road widening, in both directions, along 26 miles (41.8 km) of the I-77 in the metropolitan area north of Charlotte, between the junctions with the I-277 in Charlotte and the NC-150 in Iredell County. To improve traffic in one of the fastest-growing areas of the state, the existing highway will be rebuilt and capacity will be increased by creating managed lanes, subject to variable electronic tolls, which will help reduce congestion and improve traffic flow in the corridor.

The project is divided into three segments:

• on the southern segment (2.2 mi, 3.5 km), the existing section will be upgraded and two managed lanes will be built in each direction;
• on the central segment (14.9 mi, 23.8 km), the existing lanes will be upgraded and two managed lanes will be built in each direction;
• on the northern segment (8.8 mi, 14.2 km), the consortium will build one new managed lane in each direction.