The contracts are signed. The plans are drawn. Transportation officials say it’s too late to change the state’s plan to allow toll lanes to be added to Interstate 77 from Mooresville to Charlotte.

True, cancellation would come with a heavy penalty — $100 million. However, the precedent being set by this public-private highway project should concern anyone who uses the highways in North Carolina. If toll-only lanes can be added to an existing stretch of interstate highway in Charlotte, what’s to keep it from happening in other parts of the state?

For people in the greater Charlotte area — and probably for the N.C. Department of Transportation — the I-77 project has become one of those controversies that keeps gathering steam, no matter how many obstacles and arguments officials present. First the cities along the route spoke up against the plan — Mooresville, Cornelius and Davidson. Now Mecklenburg County commissioners have voted for McCrory and transportation officials to cancel the contract with developer I-77 Mobility Partners to build the toll lanes.

The $655 million project will build much-needed lanes to relieve the congestion plaguing I-77 from the Lake Norman area all the way to Charlotte. Only drivers who pay a toll will be allowed to use those lanes, though, at a cost that will fluctuate with demand. Officials say drivers likely will be able to go at least 45 mph even during rush hour. That illustrates how dire the traffic situation is, when people are hoping to go 45 mph on an interstate highway.

The project is expected to be finished in 2018, but the contract will reverberate through history. The state cannot add more lanes to the highway itself for 50 years without incurring a heavy penalty.

People accustomed to paying tolls in other parts of the country may find North Carolina’s pocket of resistance quaint and even backward. There is a big difference between a highway with tolls for all and one in which select lanes require tolls. People who pay the toll are expected to encounter less congestion and therefore be able to drive faster. Those who can’t afford tolls can enjoy watching the better-off drivers speed by.   

People have been saying for years that the state needs to find new ways to fund transportation projects. Gas tax revenue is declining. Some consider the I-77 toll project a stroke of outside-the-box brilliance. More likely, it proves that North Carolina has yet to find the funding solution it needs.