"I know it hurts right now, it's painful to see." Cornelius Deputy Town Manager Cynthia Broomfield said this to the Board of Commissioners about the West Catawba Avenue widening, as the Charlotte Observer reported. She was talking about the cleared trees and new utility poles along a road that is still two lanes.
If your days on Alexander Island run along West Catawba Avenue, the work you can see now is preparation for the widening. Paving crews for that project are years away. The construction that actually changes your drive in 2026 and 2027 sits at the two ends of the trip. One end is Exit 28 at Torrence Chapel Road. The other is Exit 25 at NC 73. The widening of the middle comes last.
Exit 28 has active construction now
The project officially called U-5906 rebuilds the tangle of intersections where West Catawba meets Torrence Chapel Road near I-77. NCDOT approved a $21 million contract with Ohio-based Kwest Group, and the Charlotte Observer reported in July that the total has since grown to $25.6 million with contingency and inflation. The Town of Cornelius pays $7.7 million of that. Work began in April 2026.
The project adds three roundabouts:
- Torrence Chapel Road at Knox Road
- Chartwell Center Drive at Liverpool Parkway
- Torrence Chapel Road at The Fresh Market driveway
It also realigns Knox Road at One Norman Boulevard and rehabilitates Knox Road itself, according to the Town of Cornelius project page. Deputy Town Manager Wayne Herron told the Observer the finished project should cut waits on Torrence Chapel Road from 11 minutes to 2 1/2 minutes. In the meantime, the work brings detours and takes away some familiar shortcuts. One permanent change: the new geometry ends left turns from One Norman Boulevard onto Knox Road.
Phase one was projected to wrap up in November and runs during the day. Phases two through six are scheduled for nights. The Observer published the town's schedule for the later phases:
- Phase two: work inside the Knox Road and Torrence Chapel Road roundabout.
- Phase three, March to August 2027: all work on Torrence Chapel Road.
- Phase four, August to November 2027: the Chartwell Center Drive and Liverpool Parkway roundabout.
- Phase five, August to November 2027: widening Liverpool Parkway, adding an I-77 south slip lane on West Catawba Avenue, and adding left-turn stacking from West Catawba onto Liverpool Parkway.
- Phase six, November 2027 to May 2028: the final topcoat of paving across the project.
Phase five matters most for anyone heading south on I-77 from the Alexander Island side. The slip lane and the extra turn storage go onto West Catawba itself, so late summer and fall 2027 is when the interchange approach will be most unsettled.
Finish dates vary by source. The Observer's schedule ends in May 2028. A December 2025 NCDOT announcement said spring 2028 for everything except landscaping, and the town's own page still says Fall 2028. Plan around spring 2028 for the pavement and later in the year for the plantings.
Lane closures already happen. The town scheduled a sewer bypass near One Norman Boulevard for Sept. 14 through 18, with lanes closed continuously and Blue Stone Harbor traffic sent to that neighborhood's northeast entrance, per a Town of Cornelius notice. More closures like that are likely as the night phases continue.
Exit 25 goes to bid on Nov. 17
The other end of the commute moves next. NCDOT's 36-month letting list, updated in October 2026, schedules three Mecklenburg County projects for one combined letting on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2026:
| Project | What it is | NCDOT construction estimate |
|---|---|---|
| U-5765 | NC 73, also called Sam Furr Road, widened to six lanes from West Catawba Avenue to Northcross Drive in Huntersville | $61.9 million |
| I-5715 | I-77 at NC 73, interchange upgraded to a split diamond configuration | $83.7 million |
| BL-0119 | McDowell Creek Greenway pedestrian bridge over NC 73 near Lindholm Drive | $6.5 million |
A letting date is when NCDOT opens bids. It is not a contract award, and the bundle can still move. NCDOT's NC 73 project page, updated in August 2026, lists a Fall 2026 construction start for U-5765 and a completion date of "TBD." The same page carries an older cost table with $44.3 million for construction and $78.9 million in total, including utility relocation and property acquisition. That is a good reminder that these estimates keep changing.
According to the NC 73 public input site, the pedestrian bridge crosses NC 73 just west of Northcross Drive and connects to Mecklenburg County's McDowell Creek Greenway.
Here is why the two ends matter together. West Catawba gets traffic to I-77 at Exit 28 on the north end and feeds NC 73 toward Exit 25 on the south end. Starting in 2027, both of those exits could be under construction at the same time. Phase five at Exit 28 is planned for August to November 2027, the same window when a contractor awarded this winter would likely be working along NC 73.
The middle comes last, and its schedule keeps moving
The project most people think of as "the road work" is R-2555B. It widens West Catawba Avenue from Jetton Road to Sam Furr Road. Its schedule has changed every time someone published it:
| When it was reported | Source | Expected completion |
|---|---|---|
| October 2021 | Cornelius Today | 2026 |
| April 2024 | Cornelius Today, with bids expected November 2026 | 2029 |
| 2026 | NCDOT letting list sets letting for Dec. 21, 2027, and the town's June 2026 timeline runs construction through December 2030 | December 2030 |
The November 2026 bid date from the April 2024 article is the one still repeated around town, and it no longer holds. NCDOT's current list sets the letting for Dec. 21, 2027, with a $40.9 million construction estimate. Broomfield told commissioners that construction should start three or four months after bids open, and that the project should be finished by 2030. She also mentioned relief arriving in "2030, 2031 or so." The town's project timeline, prepared June 11, 2026, shows a three-year build ending in December 2030. NCDOT's own project page was last updated in January 2025 and still says construction starts in Fall 2027.
What you see along the corridor now is site preparation. Cornelius Today reported in February 2026 that right-of-way acquisition was expected to finish any day, with utility relocation to follow. That work covers water, gas, telephone, cable and electric lines. Later, Broomfield told the board that acquiring the right-of-way had taken four years, that utilities were now being relocated, and that the relocation would take about a year.
What the finished road will look like
NCDOT's latest cross-section shows four divided lanes with 11-foot travel lanes, a 23-foot raised median, curb and gutter, and multiuse paths 10 to 12 feet wide on both sides. A raised median that wide changes how left turns into driveways and side streets work. Exact access points will depend on the final plans.
At Jetton Road, the 2016 NCDOT public meeting handout said the West Catawba intersection would stay signalized under R-2555B, and any redesign would come in a future project. That document is a decade old. It is still the most specific published statement about that intersection, so the light you wait at today will likely be there when the new lanes open.
Project length also differs by source. The state's 2026–2035 transportation improvement program lists 2.35 miles, and NCDOT's project overview says 2.7. Either way, it covers the stretch from Jetton Road to Sam Furr Road.
This holiday season, the work zone is part of the trip downtown
The holiday events in Cornelius are east of I-77, so trips from the lake side go through the Exit 28 area where the roundabouts are going in. Light Up Cornelius is Saturday, Nov. 28, from 4 to 7 p.m. in downtown Cornelius at 21445 Catawba Ave., with train rides, a sledding hill, s'mores and Santa and Mrs. Claus, according to Visit Lake Norman. The 44th Annual North Mecklenburg Holiday Parade starts at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 5, and follows Main Street from Davidson into Cornelius, per Visit Lake Norman's listing.
Closer to home, Birkdale Village lost a regular stop this fall. Cornelius Today reported that Foxcroft Food & Wine closed its Birkdale location on Oct. 10 after a little over two years.
At Zach Francis, I watch how these road schedules play out for the neighborhoods along West Catawba. If you're thinking about timing a sale, a purchase or a showing schedule around the construction calendar, let's connect and go over it with the current dates.
