Estimated Project Cost $1.16 billion
Commercial close was reached on September 17, 2015. Construction began in January 2014 and is expected to be completed in 2017.
The LYNX Blue Line Extension (BLE or “Project") will extend light rail transit service from the 9.6-mile LYNX Blue Line that opened in the South Corridor of Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2007. The BLE will be 9.3 miles in length with 11 new transit stations. Approximately 3,100 parking spaces will be provided at the four stations with parking facilities, including 3 parking garages.
The alignment will run within the existing Norfolk Southern and North Carolina Railroad (NCRR) rights-of-way from Center City Charlotte to the middle of the route where it will transition to the median of North Tryon Street/US-29. The line will remain in the median until approximately 1,000 feet north of the existing entrance to the UNC Charlotte’s Charlotte Research Institute, where it will enter the campus. The BLE will terminate at the UNC Charlotte Station. Twenty at-grade crossings and 11 grade separation structures, which cross over or under roads, railroads and environmental features, are included in the Project.
FFGA: $580 M
State of North Carolina: $299.1 M
City of Charlotte NECI funds: $17.5 M
Local in-kind ROW contributions: $13.4 M
PAY-GO CATS: $70.1 M
TIFIA Loan: $180 M
Design - Bid - Build
Technical Advisor: DEC Associates
Financial Advisor: Ernst & Young
Counsel: Parker Poe
To USDOT TIFIA JPO:
- TIFIA Legal Advisor: Nixon Peabody
- TIFIA Financial Advisor: Deloitte
Direct loan: $180 million
Dee Pereira
Chief Financial Office
Assistant Director of Public Transit
Charlotte Area Transit System
600 East 4th Street
Charlotte, NC 28202
dpereira@charlottenc.gov