New 540 Expansion (Raleigh, Garner, Clayton: construction, schools, tax)
Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, CaryThe Triangle Area
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You realize the road WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN BUILT... for many years, without the toll?
That may have been what they said to justify the tolls, but I think it was just political posturing. There should either be tolls on the whole thing or no tolls at all.
I'm with the other posters here who don't understand the frustration of Western Wakers. Those of y'all who are upset need to look back on the history.
In the late 1980s, the state created an urban loops program to build beltways. Other than I-440, which isn't really a beltway at all, and the I-277 micro-loop around downtown Charlotte, there was no such thing in North Carolina.
I-485 around Charlotte and I-540 were two of the first roads on the plan. But funds are limited when you're trying to catch up on roads infrastructure that other states had for years. It took until the early 2000s for I-485 to even be a few miles long, and for I-540 to connect I-40 and US 70 (which if you think about it, was a pretty serious need.)
It took the better part of the next few years to extend I-540 to Triangle Town Center and then Knightdale. Same with Charlotte. Meanwhile, loops are underway in Greensboro, Fayetteville and Wilmington.
What you have to remember is that **almost no one** lived in Apex, west Cary, Holly Springs, F-V, etc. back then. The priorities were the North Raleigh areas that actually had people living there. And it took nearly twenty years of tax funding to pay for that road.
Lots of folks are now moving to western Wake. And the state was happy to build out I-540 as a non-toll road... within the constraints of available funding. The projected build-out period stretched into the 2030's.
Why? NC population growth is big in the Triangle but isn't just here. The Fayetteville build-out has been driven by military growth. Roads through the Sandhills and out in eastern NC have been four-laned or built to freeway standards. (And yes, urban areas are net funders of rural roads in this state -- I don't like it, but good luck changing that.) We pay big gas taxes in NC, yes, but we also have the largest state-funded road network after Texas, courtesy of the state of NC taking over almost all secondary roads in the 1930s. In other states, the county paves your road and it comes out of your property tax. You pay for it one way or another. Cities do maintain some roads here but, frankly, NCDOT has the size and scope to do it better and cheaper, usually.
No one is forcing you to drive 540. Part of the toll road law required NCDOT to provide a free four-lane alternative. That drove widening of roads like Davis Dr. to meet the requirement.
Don't like it? Don't drive it.
And, just to give a fuller sense of where I am coming from on this:
1) My wife does in fact use the road daily from our home in downtown Durham to and from Davis/Hopson. It cuts her commute down from about 23-24 minutes to about 12-13 -- it is terrific to avoid I-40, Cornwallis, Davis and all the other backroads.
2) We live in Durham, the only city in NC to receive NO money from the urban loops fund. We are still waiting for the state to fund the East End Connector, which was first proposed in the 1950s. I don't really need to hear people moving to brand new subdivisions in Apex and Holly Springs who have four-lane highways also griping about a toll freeway when they have a free choice. We'll just be lucky to get the EEC built by the 2020s; fortunately, Toll 147/540 make the case better as it is the last link in a north-south connector from US 1 to I-85.
I'm with the other posters here who don't understand the frustration of Western Wakers. Those of y'all who are upset need to look back on the history.
In the late 1980s, the state created an urban loops program to build beltways. Other than I-440, which isn't really a beltway at all, and the I-277 micro-loop around downtown Charlotte, there was no such thing in North Carolina.
I-485 around Charlotte and I-540 were two of the first roads on the plan. But funds are limited when you're trying to catch up on roads infrastructure that other states had for years. It took until the early 2000s for I-485 to even be a few miles long, and for I-540 to connect I-40 and US 70 (which if you think about it, was a pretty serious need.)
It took the better part of the next few years to extend I-540 to Triangle Town Center and then Knightdale. Same with Charlotte. Meanwhile, loops are underway in Greensboro, Fayetteville and Wilmington.
What you have to remember is that **almost no one** lived in Apex, west Cary, Holly Springs, F-V, etc. back then. The priorities were the North Raleigh areas that actually had people living there. And it took nearly twenty years of tax funding to pay for that road.
Lots of folks are now moving to western Wake. And the state was happy to build out I-540 as a non-toll road... within the constraints of available funding. The projected build-out period stretched into the 2030's.
Why? NC population growth is big in the Triangle but isn't just here. The Fayetteville build-out has been driven by military growth. Roads through the Sandhills and out in eastern NC have been four-laned or built to freeway standards. (And yes, urban areas are net funders of rural roads in this state -- I don't like it, but good luck changing that.) We pay big gas taxes in NC, yes, but we also have the largest state-funded road network after Texas, courtesy of the state of NC taking over almost all secondary roads in the 1930s. In other states, the county paves your road and it comes out of your property tax. You pay for it one way or another. Cities do maintain some roads here but, frankly, NCDOT has the size and scope to do it better and cheaper, usually.
No one is forcing you to drive 540. Part of the toll road law required NCDOT to provide a free four-lane alternative. That drove widening of roads like Davis Dr. to meet the requirement.
Don't like it? Don't drive it.
And, just to give a fuller sense of where I am coming from on this:
1) My wife does in fact use the road daily from our home in downtown Durham to and from Davis/Hopson. It cuts her commute down from about 23-24 minutes to about 12-13 -- it is terrific to avoid I-40, Cornwallis, Davis and all the other backroads.
2) We live in Durham, the only city in NC to receive NO money from the urban loops fund. We are still waiting for the state to fund the East End Connector, which was first proposed in the 1950s. I don't really need to hear people moving to brand new subdivisions in Apex and Holly Springs who have four-lane highways also griping about a toll freeway when they have a free choice. We'll just be lucky to get the EEC built by the 2020s; fortunately, Toll 147/540 make the case better as it is the last link in a north-south connector from US 1 to I-85.
Such a logical and rational look at this issue in its entirety. Great post!
The other Urban Loop in the state prior to the Highway Trust Fund urban loops program is I-240 in Asheville which was completed in 1980.
FYI construction for the Durham EEC is scheduled to begin in about 1.5 years. They're already buying up the land. That is being funded out of the Urban Loops program.
I live in West Cary and will gladly use the toll road every chance I get, becuase I hate driving and am happy to pay a bit of extra money in order to spend as little time doing it as possible. Admittedly, though, I am glad that I don't have to face the costs of using it as part of my daily commute.
I don't like the imposition of tolls on 540 between 55 and 54, but that's a separate issue from why there are tolls to begin with.
I agree with a previous post. The population of North Raleigh and North Wake 25 years ago was what the population of Apex/HS/F-V is today. Those of us in North Raleigh waited and waited and waited for 540 to get built. I moved here in 1986 when 540 was already on the map. It finally opened out my way in 2001. And by the way, while we waited for 540, nobody built four-lane roads for us to reach RTP. Those of you in South Wake got both a rebuilt Davis Drive and a rebuilt 55.
Apex/HS/F-V didn't want to wait until 2025 for your toll-free 540, so the state offered you a deal: build the road now, but it will be tolled. And your politicians jumped for it. So don't complain to those of us in North Raleigh about tolls. It was your choice, or technically speaking it was the choice of the people you voted for.
If you want to see what happens with an isolated instance of a toll road, when other routes have been used for years...visit the lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely toll road in Greenville, SC.
We took it last summer, a dozen or so mile, more or less, if I remember. We had one car pass us and one car meet us. Uhmmmm. Gonna be a long time payin for that road at that rate!
I predict that the toll road will be fairly busy at rush hour and pretty lonely at all other times of the day for its first decade of existence.
Traffic on southbound Davis and 55 can be pretty nasty now in the evening, even after the recent widenings. Southbound Davis frequently backs up clear from Morrisville Carpenter all the way to Little Drive at the peak of the evening rush. 55 backs up from Morrisville Carpenter to O'Kelly Chapel sometimes. It's hard for me to imagine that nobody will pay money to avoid that.
I anticipate that we will all see a WRAL report that says they are losing money. When I read that, I will laugh my butt off.
This is still a middle finger to everyone who paid taxes and they chose to toll the highway. I really hope everyone knows that and will not use that road or circumvent the whole process of photographing plates.
It's going to be a financial disaster. There may be some people trying it in the beginning but that will drop off as times goes by and they increase the fees. This just is not going to work the way they think it will. I drive over the existing toll road now and see it being used very little even in rush hour.
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