Cornelius drivers who spend their mornings crawling around Interstate 77's Exit 28 are now getting a different kind of slowdown: months of construction. A $25.6 million, six-phase overhaul of some of the Lake Norman area's most notorious choke points officially launched this spring, with the goal of cutting long waits and risky left turns around the interchange.
The package comes with three new roundabouts, targeted turn-movement changes, resurfacing work and new sidewalks and bike lanes. It also comes with a healthy dose of short-term pain: detours, lane closures and at least one roughly 40-day shutdown during phase one. Town leaders say the end result should be shorter queues and a safer, easier-to-navigate Exit 28 area, if residents can hang in through the construction grind.
The project is being managed by the N.C. Department of Transportation and built by Ohio-based contractor KWest Group. NCDOT signed off on a roughly $21 million construction contract in December 2025, according to N.C. Department of Transportation, a move that was first flagged last December. The overall price tag has since climbed to $25.6 million, including contingency and inflation, with Cornelius on the hook for about $7.7 million of the total, according to The Charlotte Observer. Crews are already in the corridor relocating utilities and doing preliminary work, according to Cornelius Today.
What crews will build
The six-phase plan calls for three roundabouts, limits on certain left turns and new sidewalks and bike lanes along both sides of Knox Road, according to the Town of Cornelius project information sheet. Engineers will realign Knox Road so it feeds directly into the traffic signal at One Norman Boulevard and West Catawba Avenue, tightening up the current tangle of approaches.
Plans also include resurfacing stretches of roadway to clean up sight lines. Town documents say the roundabouts and geometric tweaks are designed to cut down on conflict points at intersections that now meet at awkward angles and tend to generate fender benders, honking and frayed nerves.
Phasing and work hours
To keep nearby neighborhoods from feeling like a 24-hour construction zone, work is broken into six phases so crews can stagger closures and heavy activity. Phase one is scheduled primarily as daytime work, while phases two through six are expected to happen mostly at night, Cornelius Today reports.
Local contractors are already in the field installing new waterlines, shifting utilities and setting up curbs and drainage ahead of more disruptive pavement and roundabout work. Officials say off-duty officers will help manage traffic in the busier work zones, and that the noisiest tasks will be pushed into overnight windows when possible.
Timeline, detours and reaction
Phase one includes the early stages of the Torrence Chapel and Knox Road roundabout along with sidewalks and bike lanes on Knox Road. That first phase is expected to wrap in November 2026, with final paving and project closeout running through May 2028, according to The Charlotte Observer.
The Observer also reported that state and town estimates show the finished improvements could cut wait times on Torrence Chapel Road from about 11 minutes to roughly 2½ minutes in peak conditions. At a community meeting this month, about 60 residents showed up, many of them unhappy with the phase-one detour plan. One driver told reporters it once took 17 minutes to go half a mile through the corridor, a number that drew knowing nods from other regulars in the room.
What drivers should do now
For now, drivers are being urged to pad their schedules, pay close attention to signs and follow posted detours as lanes shift. The N.C. Department of Transportation notes that most work, aside from landscaping, is slated to wrap by spring 2028 and recommends checking DriveNC for real-time travel information, per the department's announcement.
Town staff say they will keep residents in the loop with detour maps and regular progress updates as each phase starts and finishes. Until then, anyone who depends on Exit 28 might want to keep a podcast or two queued up for the ride.
