North Carolina Beyond 77 Corridor Study

Markets

Transportation
Location

North Carolina, USA
Client

Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization
Completion date

2022

Taylor Wright

VP, Principal Business Development Director, Atlanta, GA, USA contact form+1 678 247 2425

With the Charlotte metro population expecting to double by 2050, the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization (CRTPO) needed to have a strategic study conducted to evaluate future mobility needs of the multimodal transportation network along Interstate-77 corridor.

The study named “Beyond 77” launched in January 2020. As lead consultant, we worked with a dynamic team of partners to provide a strategic, innovative, equitable and comprehensive toolbox of effective strategies and solutions. Ultimately, 286 different policies, programs and infrastructure projects were developed to enhance mobility throughout the I-77 corridor.

Beyond 77 started as a vision to reduce congestion and increase multimodal options along and around the corridor, but quickly grew into a comprehensive set of recommendations using new data analyses, public input and stakeholder coordination. It offered varying perspectives on how to create actionable projects, policies and programs out of planned goals. While many solutions were generally confined to the original study area of the I-77 corridor, many of the strategies can benefit the entire Charlotte region, particularly the policy- and program-oriented solutions. Some of the Beyond 77 recommendations could lead to the creation of additional working groups and regional committees to achieve greater efficiencies, collaboration and opportunities.

We developed a comprehensive toolkit of digital resources providing a suite of information to support the decision-making process and convey key details for each recommendation, including the assumed timeframe, level of effort and assumptive estimates.

The toolkit included a mixed-use indicator (MUI) focus area map developed by normalizing thousands of land use/zoning codes across all jurisdictions in the corridor study area. It included a spatial overlay combining the travel time index with the mixed-use indicator to highlight congestion that was anticipated within and around different intensities of land use. Higher intensity development (the darker shading), adjacent to corridors with higher travel time index values (red segments), helped to inform where investment in multimodal strategies and solutions would be most viable over the next few decades. Beyond 77 identified 12 critical locations as focus areas to help further emphasize such future investment.

The team also developed the Strategic Users Implementation Tool, an online application allowing planners, decision makers and the general public to interact with each of the proposed recommendations—providing expanded detail on estimated cost, coordination and the communities served.

Another online application developed by the team was the Funding Alternative Strategies Tool which was used to explore short-term funding alternative strategies across multiple counties within the North Carolina portion of the Charlotte region.

These tools helped define and identify strategies, policies and programs which will guide future mobility of the diverse communities within the area.

Social, economic and sustainable considerations were also considered. The ability for people, goods and services to continue to move quickly and conveniently throughout the area is essential to maintaining robust economic growth and development. Numerous solutions throughout Beyond 77 focused on social sustainability and wellbeing, such as the implementation of Greenways & Mobility Hubs. This solution recommended the implementation of greenway and multi-use path infrastructure along key corridors to connect to transit stations and mobility hubs, allowing more multi-modal options to connect across the region. Safe, new connections for bicycles and pedestrians needed to be made (especially in areas of high density) to move the region into a more sustainable and equitable future with a range of transportation options. These connections would allow improved use of transit investments, benefitting both regional transit operability and individual user’s ability to access them in a safe and useful way. Another example, Policies for Equity Factors in Planning, recommended the development of new, optional policy language statements that would allow jurisdictions and organizations to adopt into local planning and project work if they chose to do so. This language would seek to effectively define what equity means across the Charlotte region. Equity has become a critical element to consider with all planning functions, beyond standard requirements defined by federal or state agencies. The opportunity to pair equity needs between land use and transportation planning is something we believed would greatly benefit the jurisdictions affected.

Beyond 77 is a great example of what can be achieved when data, technology, planning and public input come together. The project was recognized with an Honors Award in the Planning & Mapping category from the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) of North Carolina at the 2023 Engineering Excellence Awards.

North Carolina Beyond 77 Corridor Study

Taylor Wright

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