Charlotte — NCDOT officials unveiled a $3.2B vision for I-77 South this week, outlining a plan to transition the interstate from a standard roadway into a multi-layered, savory infrastructure experience.
“We’ve heard the concerns about traffic,” said one Secretary of Transportation Daniel H. Johnson. “And we believe the only solution is to layer the commute until it reaches a state of baked perfection.”
The centerpiece of the presentation reimagined I-77 as a series of curving road decks stacked one atop another. Each deck is supported by reinforced pylons and separated by what officials described as “generous, ricotta-like structural bedding.”
While previous meetings focused on “throughput” and “congestion relief,” this session centered almost exclusively on the structural integrity of the stack. “This is a conceptual rendering,” the official added. “But conceptually, we believe Charlotte is hungry for an asphalt lasagna that truly satisfies the regional appetite for private-public partnerships.”
Transportation planners clarified that the project aims to minimize land acquisition—and the politically inconvenient razing of historic Black neighborhoods—by building directly into the sky. Rather than expanding outward, the plan calls for a “slow-simmered approach,” placing new tolled express lanes above existing lanes, which are themselves tucked under a top layer of premium, high-altitude transit.
“This approach allows us to stay within the current footprint,” said another presenter. “We’re not increasing sprawl; we’re increasing the richness of the experience. We are moving away from the ‘spaghetti logic’ of the 1960s and toward a robust, casserole-based future.”
“I-77 has always been a spine,” the official said. “What we’re doing now is giving it a lasagnified soul.”
The lasagna lanes will be tolled.
