NC awards $249 million contract to widen one of Charlotte area’s worst congested roads

This Charlotte Observer file photo shows N.C. 150 West at Perth Road near Lake Norman in Mooresville.

After 40 years of complaints by residents stuck in congestion, the N.C. Department of Transportation has awarded a $249 million contract to widen N.C. 150 at Lake Norman.

“Our community has long awaited these enhancements, and we are committed to work with NCDOT as they oversee the construction,” state Sen. Vickie Sawyer, R-Iredell, said in a statement Thursday.

Sawyer and Mooresville town commissioner Lisa Qualls announced the awarding of the contract to Charlotte-based Blythe Development. The NCDOT Board in Raleigh approved the contract at its meeting Thursday morning.

Sawyer called the widening of the two-lane former farm-to-market route critical to alleviating chronic backups and improving safety “along one of the region’s most heavily traveled corridors.”

N.C. 150 was backed up at Interstate 77 Mooresville exit 36 as long ago as the late 1980s, but a member of the State Transportation Board from rural Cherryville in Gaston County got work started there first, a Charlotte Observer investigation in the early 1990s revealed.

The board member was an executive with Carolina Freight, then one of the top trucking companies in America. Expanding the route starting near the company’s headquarters would more quickly move his trucks to Interstate 85 in Gastonia via U.S. 321 in Lincolnton, he told the Observer at the time.

Pleas by business leaders in Mooresville and nearby communities at the time failed to sway the board.

Two-county widening

The project, which is fully funded, will widen 6.9 miles of N.C. 150 in Catawba and Iredell counties, according to the N.C. Department of Transportation.

Charlotte-based contractor Blythe Development LLC will expand the highway from four to six lanes between Greenwood Road in Terrell on Lake Norman to U.S. 21 in Mooresville, officials said.

Part of the stretch includes the old two-lane bridge over the lake. An additional bridge will carry westbound traffic, from Mooresville into Catawba County.

Multiple lanes will be added, and traffic improvements will be made to the I-77/N.C. 150 exit 36 interchange.

New intersections along N.C. 150 should reduce congestion and wrecks by eliminating left turns from side roads onto the highway, NCDOT officials said. Raised medians will make left-turning drivers go right. In fewer than 1,000 feet, they’ll be able to get into a U-turn lane.

The notoriously backed-up intersection of N.C. 150 and Williamson/Bluefield roads in Mooresville near the lake will be entirely redesigned.

Widening is expected to begin in January and finish in spring 2030, state highway officials said in a news release. “Per the contract, any lane closures on N.C. 150 will be permitted during overnight hours to minimize travel impacts,” according to the release.

Qualls thanked NCDOT “for their dedication to this project, especially considering the recent challenges posed by Hurricane Helene.” Qualls also is chairperson of the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization, which recommends road projects to the state.

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