[Tai_Chung]

They haven’t finished 485 in Charlotte?

I moved to Charlotte in 1994 and they were building 485. I moved away in 2004 and it wasn’t finished.

Why must it take a generation to build a loop around the city? Here in Kansas, roads are built quickly.

[csmusaret]

Because I_485 is in Charlotte and the politicians are in Raleigh.

[MitchellC]

They haven’t finished 485 in Charlotte?

They won't even begin to build the last section of it until 2015, assuming one believes their current public estimate.

Why must it take a generation to build a loop around the city?

It's apparently more important to buy off certain constituencies with useless roads.

They first planned 485 back in the 70s.

The sadder thing is that those parts that have been long finished are inadequate because they didn't build enough lanes. The southern part of the loop, between Pineville and Matthews, is worthless during rush hour, except as a magnet to lure drivers who don't know better away from other roads. (Heh)

Sadder still is that this entire roads issue is a huge winner for Republicans - so much so that you could find posts on Kos and DU this year from Charlotteans saying they were actually contemplating voting for McCrory over the issue - but the state party is apparently too dumb or dead to take advantage of it.