This is a street project I can love. The city wants to widen the sidewalks on South Tryon Street over I-277, plus create bike lanes. The picture above is an artist’s rendering of what it might look like, looking north toward the skyline. Note the lovely Charlotte Observer building at left, just over the bridge. Here’s what it looks like now. 
The idea is to make South Tryon Street between Stonewall Street (the corner where the Observer office and the Gantt Center sit) and Carson Boulevard (the street formerly known as Independence Boulevard until I-277 was born) more suitable for pedestrians and bicyclists. If you want to hear more, there’s a public meeting today at 5:30 p.m. at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center, in room 280.
The city intends to start with a 90-demonstration project, starting March 15. They’ll temporarily restripe the lanes on the pavement and put up bollards. Tryon will go from four lanes to three – two northbound and one southbound – between Stonewall and Carson. “It’s going to require some signal phase tweaking” for the traffic light at Morehead and Tryon, says Jim Kimbler with the Charlotte Department of Transportation.
The goal is to turn the excessively wide four-lanes into three lanes with better sidewalks, especially over the bridge. Currently when you walk over the I-277 bridge you’re on a 5-foot back-of-curb sidewalk looking down on traffic zooming below. It is not pleasant. And because I work at that spot I can report that traffic on Tryon is usually sparse. Jay-walking is routine, and easy.
Why a demonstration project? The bridge is state-owned, as is South Tryon south of Morehead, so the N.C. DOT has veto power, and it wants to make sure that the changes won’t foul traffic or hurt the bridge. If the state agrees the “street diet” will work, then the city will move forward.
Tryon between Morehead and Carson isn’t as wide as the section over I-277. Kimbler said the sidewalks there won’t be widened right away, because the city hopes development in the near future will produce better sidewalks. Let us hope that is the case, or that the city will improve the sidewalks if no development ensues in a year or so. The photo here is what the sidewalk is like now. It is not a scene that makes your heart sing.