News

RTA members and partners,

This past Wednesday was an inflection point in our ongoing journey to accelerate the North US 1 freeway. There were two impactful afternoon votes:  one by CAMPO that authorized tolls to accelerate the freeway and complementary multimodal parallel access road system, and then a second vote less than an hour later by the NC House of Representatives that would preclude the study or implementation of tolls along the corridor.

In reality, no one wants tolls on Capital Boulevard — we are just trying to figure out the best way to accelerate needed improvements to reduce the daily toll that Capital Boulevard imposes on travelers.

In this week’s extended blog post below, we provide a detailed overview of our organization’s position and the advocacy landscape, recent media coverage links, and potential next steps. You can also view our newly updated list of FAQs for the project.

Let’s get moving,
Joe

Blog outline and contents.

1. We must find a solution to accelerate the Capital Freeway amidst incessant and unacceptable project delays.
2. Capital Boulevard is already a “toll road” of stress and congestion — and that toll is only increasing.
3. Everyone will be better off if we accelerate the Capital Freeway improvements, whether or not they use the freeway, and whether or not we use tolls to accelerate construction.
4. RTA continues to support a zero/discounted off-peak toll framework, to reduce potential costs for users.
5. Recent actions.
6. The current situation.
7. Potential next steps.

1 – We must find a solution to accelerate the Capital Freeway amidst incessant and unacceptable project delays.

• Wake County is the most populous county in the region and state, and Franklin County has the highest population growth rate in the metropolitan Triangle. As a result of this growth, traffic and congestion has steadily increased along the north US 1 corridor. In addition, the duration of the peak period has steadily increased over the past few years, and as growth continues, this trend will only continue.
• Unlike southern Wake County and northern Johnston County, which have seen 10 miles of widened Interstate 40 and around 35 miles of new Turnpike freeway — all of which have made travel much faster, easier, and more reliable — travel in northern Wake County along US 1 has only gotten progressively worse.
• NCDOT’s proposed upgrade of US 1 north to a 70 MPH freeway with a complementary, parallel access road network is excellent. The “only” issue has been the ever-increasing cost and repeated delays in the construction start date since 2018.
• In the 2018 NCDOT State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP), construction was slated to begin in 2021. Delays continued with the 2020 and 2022 STIP schedules. In the current 2026 draft STIP — eight years later than 2018 — construction is now slated to begin in 2031, representing a 10 year delay since the 2018 STIP.
• The cost of the freeway upgrade has increased by more than $500m in just the last two years, from around $0.77 billion in 2024 to a total estimated construction cost of $1.34 billion in the 2026 draft STIP.
• While proposed improvements along Capital are now “fully funded” and “committed” in the draft state TIP, they are not funded for construction until five years out (2031).
• Given a litany of past delays, there is skepticism by many elected officials, RTA, and other partners that the project will not again be delayed, given inflation, impacts from Hurricane Helene, other competing priorities, etc.
• Our organization’s preference would be to accelerate the construction of the freeway without requiring any toll revenue. However, given the ongoing cost increases and our shared incredulity about the proposed schedule in the STIP — coupled with our region’s past and ongoing success with the 540 turnpike — we have been pursuing a toll option to accelerate the project, with our specific goal to require as little tolls as possible while ensuring that Capital Freeway construction begins as quickly as possible.       (top)

2 – Capital Boulevard is already a “toll road” of stress and congestion — and that toll is only increasing.

• Many residents, businesses, state legislators, local elected officials — and our organization, as noted above — have all maintained that we don’t want Capital Boulevard to be a toll road.
• The reality is that it is unfortunately too late for that.  Capital Boulevard is already a “toll road” — one that takes an increasing toll on our sanity, our safe travel, our relationships, reliable access to jobs, time with family, economic development, emergency response times, and every other aspect of quality of life.
• Travelers on U.S. 1 are already paying a daily toll of stress, congestion, delay, and unreliable travel, with nothing to show for it — and the price of the toll continues to go up every year.
• The reality is that no one wants tolls on Capital Boulevard — we are just trying to figure out the best way to ensure and accelerate the improvements needed to reduce the daily toll that Capital Boulevard already imposes on travelers, and on our lives.  (top)

3. Everyone will be better off if we accelerate the Capital Freeway improvements, whether or not they use the freeway, and whether or not we use tolls to accelerate construction.

• Fortunately, the proposed US 1 improvements by NCDOT include both a new freeway and a parallel access road system for the entire length of the corridor. RTA commissioned an analysis of projected future peak period corridor travel times. Our consultant found that future travel along the (untolled) parallel service road routing between the Franklin County line and I-540 would take far less time than travel along an unimproved Capital Boulevard.
• Some specific findings:
  • 30 minutes typical travel time along the Capital Boulevard corridor today during peak periods
  • About 30 minutes along the (untolled) access roads parallel to the future freeway (29 minutes in 2035)
  • More than 60 minutes along an unimproved Capital Boulevard corridor in 2035 during peak periods (63 minutes in 2035)
  • Projected 2035 peak period delays will be around 12 minutes at a single congested signalized intersection (Burlington Mills Rd.), and continue to worsen at other locations.
  • Less than 10 minutes in future travel time along a completed Capital Freeway  (9 minutes in 2035)
• Whether traveling on a tolled freeway (9 minutes) or taking the untolled parallel service road network (29 minutes), the average future peak period traveler will be no worse off than a typical peak period journey today (30 minutes), and far better off than with a future unimproved Capital Boulevard during peak periods (63 minutes). In addition, they will have two different travel options available to them — a new, uncongested freeway and a robust parallel access road network — both of which will be more reliable than current travel on Capital Boulevard.  (top)

4 – RTA continues to support a zero/discounted off-peak toll framework, to reduce potential costs for users.

• While RTA has supported tolls as a viable acceleration method, we have not embraced the 24/7 tolling of all future freeway lanes as our preferred solution for upgrading Capital Boulevard:
• RTA has consistently endorsed a limited toll option – zero toll overnight to help third shift drivers, and discounted tolls during off-peak periods, with the full toll rate only during peak volume times, with all tolls charged according to a pre-set schedule (i.e., not variable pricing).
• The full toll rate would be equivalent to prevailing Triangle Expressway tolls on 540; other tolls would either be discounted from this level or zero, depending on the time of day. The more state funding retained for the project, the lower the tolls can be, and the more hours per day the discounted rates can apply.
• We have elevated our support for a zero/discounted off-peak toll framework publicly for several months, including at our RTA annual meeting in January, and at multiple public comment sessions this year, most recently at the Wake Forest town board meeting on Tuesday and at CAMPO on Wednesday. We have also sent multiple communications to the Turnpike Authority about the request, including this one in concert with the Town of Wake Forest.
• Turnpike has responded positively by noting that their financial model would support a scheduled tolling structure with up to 100% discounts by time-of-day, as long as the project retains sufficient state funding. Turnpike noted their willingness to study specific toll rates and schedule if CAMPO were to approve tolling, which happened on Wednesday.
• While some people will avoid tolls by traveling at other times or via other routes, more travelers will be attracted to the freeway (even as a toll road) than will avoid it, according to the Turnpike Authority’s study comparison with an unimproved Capital Boulevard.
• Regardless of toll level or schedule, all tolls will end once the road is paid off, similar to legislation requiring the same for 540 in southern Wake County — and just like the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike and the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway tolls have been retired in Virginia.  (top)

5 – Recent actions.

• The executive board of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO), which is responsible for regional transportation planning in Wake County and the eastern Triangle, voted on Wednesday to authorize tolling and other alternative delivery methods to accelerate construction of the US 1 / Capital Freeway project.
  • This action followed a recent affirmative vote by Raleigh City Council, discussions about tolling by other governmental bodies, and endorsements by both RTA and the Greater Raleigh Chamber of pursuing tolls as an acceleration option.
• Less than one hour after the affirmative CAMPO vote, the N.C. House passed an amendment to the House budget at the General Assembly that would prohibit the study or implementation of tolling for Capital Boulevard.
• The amendment passed on Wednesday afternoon, and the language has been incorporated into the approved House budget (pg. 525).
• Here are links to some media articles about the current situation and recent actions by CAMPO and the House:  ABC-11, N&O, Axios, NC Tribune.
• I said to the News&Observer this week after the respective votes:  “We do understand the impetus for the legislative amendment that would preclude tolls on a future Capital Freeway. Tolls are never the popular or first choice for the business community or anyone else. And we also share the focus on actively pursuing non-toll funding options to accelerate freeway construction.”  (top)

6 – The current situation.

• CAMPO’s approval on Wednesday afternoon provided authorization for the project to take the next steps for project acceleration via toll revenue.
• However, the study of toll options for Capital Boulevard must cease if the toll prohibition language that was included in the House budget remains in the final state budget.
• Even if the legislative toll probition language were removed or softened, there would still need to be clarification language to allow the tolling of an existing corridor for the toll framework authorized by CAMPO — i.e., to build a freeway and complementary parallel access roads, and then toll just the freeway lanes — to proceed to possible implementation.
• My sense is that the two votes this week, while contradictory in policy approach, nonetheless indicate a broad consensus of the need to finally deliver a solution for accelerating the freeway, and to provide long-overdue relief to travelers in northern Wake County and Franklin County.
• We have created a newly updated list of FAQs for the project.  (top)

7 – Potential next steps.

• While we certainly understand the sentiments behind a legislative prohibition against all tolling, as stated above and to the N&O this past week, we would still prefer to allow the study and development of tolling options to continue, particularly after CAMPO voted to pursue tolling and other alternative delivery methods this week.
• Continued authorization to proceed with tolling research would allow for additional refinement and adjustment of a zero/discounted off-peak toll framework or comparison — and it would also allow for the simultaneous identification of non-tolling options that could obviate the need for tolls to accelerate the corridor.
• While tolls are the most plausible solution we have seen to date to ensure the acceleration of the freeway, they are not the only possible pathway, and we will continue to collectively pursue other revenue sources and solutions. There may well be methods that would not negatively impact other vital roadway or transit projects, and that would move the project as quickly as a toll option.
• To that point, we have had ongoing outreach with our US House and Senate delegations about federal funding options for the Capital Freeway upgrade, including several conversations earlier this week. Those partnerships and outreach will continue, regardless of the outcome of tolling at the state legislature.
• Our organization will continue to elevate the urgency and opportunity to accelerate Capital Boulevard improvements, including the freeway and complementary parallel access road system.
• If tolls were to cease to be an answer, then our region will need a viable alternative solution to accelerate the freeway to be identified, proposed, and activated quickly. The rate of construction cost inflation is rapidly closing available options, and the current travel situation is untenable — and yet without improvements travel on Capital will only get progressively worse.  (top)

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