State highway authorities accelerated the planned start of expansion Notoriously congested NC 150 in the Lake Norman area, Mooresville City Commissioner Tommy DeWeese said Friday.
A contractor could be hired and begin work on the Mooresville leg of the long-awaited $269.5 million expansion in October, DeWeese announced on Nextdoor.
NCDOT currently lists the start date as 2025 on its NC 150 online project page and 2029 as the start of the Catawba County leg. It was unknown Saturday whether the Catawba County stretch would also start earlier.
The project, which is fully funded, will widen 15 miles of two-lane NC 150 from just west of the US 21/NC 150 interchange in Mooresville to the NC 16 bypass in Catawba County. Part of the stretch includes the old two-lane bridge over the lake.
Several lanes will be added and traffic improvements will be made at the I-77/NC 150 Exit 36 interchange.
Schedule postponed to October
Bid announcements for the project are scheduled to be published in the month beginning Sept. 17, with construction beginning in October, shortly after a contractor is chosen, DeWeese said.
FERC License, Utilities
In other NC 150 project updates Friday, DeWeese told residents that NCDOT continues to work with utility owners to move utilities to the expansion.
The contract will have a “delayed availability” clause that temporarily prohibits NC 150 expansion work within a limit governed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The commission regulates Duke Energy power plants on the Catawba River lakes, including the coal-fired Marshall Steam Station off NC 150 on Lake Norman in the Catawba County community of Terrell.
The Duke FERC permit allowing work to expand NC 150 at the border “will not be acquired until the summer of 2025,” DeWeese said on Nextdoor. “All other work can begin.”
NCDOT will include a public information officer position in the contract to answer questions and provide updates to residents, elected officials and media outlets.
Residents waited decades
Residents have been pushing for NC 150 relief for decades.
In the early 1990sa member of North Carolina Transportation Board persuaded other council members to expand NC 150 starting in the rural Gaston County town of Cherryville instead of the already congested Exit 36 in Mooresville, The Charlotte Observer reported at the time.
The board member was an executive from Carolina Freight trucking company that wanted faster access to I-85 in Gastonia for its fleet. Carolina Freight was among those largest trucking companies in the US It was purchased in the mid-1990s.
