On October 7, 2026, NCDOT pulled the contract for the I-77 Exit 25 interchange and the NC 73 widening past Birkdale Village out of its October 20 letting. Bids will now be opened on November 17, 2026, at 2:00 p.m. Two days earlier, the Town of Huntersville put out a solicitation for inspection services on the Gilead Road West widening. It expects construction to get its formal go-ahead on February 4, 2027. Back in February 2026, that same project was reported to be starting this summer.
For anyone comparing streets in Huntersville, these two notices carry more weight than any project page. The construction dates printed on official project pages are forecasts, and both of the town's biggest near-term jobs have already moved this year. When you tour a home near Sam Furr Road or Gilead Road, you're seeing today's drive. The drive you'll have in your first few years of owning it depends on documents most buyers never open.
Four dates, and only two of them commit anyone
Every state-funded road project here goes through the same steps. Each step leaves a date somewhere public, and each date means something different.
- The STIP year. This is the year a project is scheduled for construction in North Carolina's State Transportation Improvement Program. It's a fiscal-year funding slot, so it doesn't tell you when crews will show up.
- The project page milestone. NCDOT's public pages list a "begin construction" season, and they label future dates as subject to change.
- The letting. This is the day contractors' bids are opened and read. Before it happens, nobody has a price or a contractor.
- Award and notice to proceed. After a contract is awarded, the notice to proceed is the moment construction time officially starts running.
The first two are plans, and the last two are commitments. Right now, every major project near Birkdale and Gilead Road is still at step 2 or 3.
What the November 17 bids cover
The contract that slipped, C205223, bundles three projects that most people think of separately.
| Project | What it is | What the published record says |
|---|---|---|
| I-5715 | Converting the I-77 / NC 73 Sam Furr Road interchange to a split diamond | STIP construction year 2027, $101.9 million in total funds |
| U-5765 | Widening NC 73 from West Catawba Avenue to Northcross Drive | NCDOT page says construction begins Fall 2026; STIP says 2027 |
| BL-0119 | A pedestrian bridge over NC 73 on the McDowell Creek Greenway | Bundled into the same bid package |
NCDOT's project page was last updated August 21, 2026, before the bids were postponed. It still shows U-5765 construction beginning in Fall 2026, and it lists the overall completion date as "TBD." The postponement letter says an addendum is forthcoming. Until bids are read and a contract is awarded, there's no contractor, no bid price and no contract completion date for this work.
Even the cost figure depends on which document you read. NCDOT's project page shows a $78.9 million total for U-5765, carried over from the older 2024–2033 STIP. The 2026–2035 STIP lists $115.63 million. At its July 8, 2026 meeting, the NCDOT Board added $750,000 for U-5765 and $200,000 in preliminary engineering money for the interchange. Money is still moving on paper, and nobody has broken ground.
The reason for the work is in NCDOT's own projection. Traffic on NC 73 between West Catawba Avenue and Northcross Drive is expected to grow 60 percent by 2040.
One mix-up to avoid: on October 9, 2026, WSOC reported a $35 million, four-lane widening "finally" moving forward. That story is about West Catawba Avenue from Jetton Road to Sam Furr Road, which is a separate project from the NC 73 segment past Birkdale.
Gilead Road West shows how far a start date can drift
The Gilead Road West project is the clearest local example of the gap between plan and commitment. In February 2026, Lake Norman Publications reported that a "$20 million relief project that has been in the works for a decade" would get underway this summer. It would widen Gilead Road West between McCoy Road and Wynfield Creek Parkway from two lanes to a four-lane divided highway.
The Town's own October 5, 2026 solicitation tells a later story. Huntersville is still looking for a consulting firm to handle construction engineering and inspection, with letters of interest due October 30. The NCDOT copy of that request expects a notice to proceed on February 4, 2027, and 40 months of construction. If those dates hold, work would run into mid-2030. The Town runs the project, and it's partly paid for with federal-aid money passed through NCDOT.
The same February report said turn lanes and a traffic signal at Beatties Ford Road and Gilead Road would begin this summer. We couldn't find a later public source confirming that the work started, so treat its timing as unconfirmed.
Smaller jobs are moving too. The Town posted a notice on September 18, 2026 about street resurfacing crews working in neighborhoods this fall. It didn't list the streets. The February report said the town planned to repave 11 miles of streets in 2026, close to double its usual amount.
The queue behind them
Delays like these don't happen on their own. Huntersville's Director of Engineering, Stephen Trott, described what comes next at the town's budget retreat in January, as Lake Norman Publications reported:
"27-28 is when all these projects are planning to start construction. There will be orange barrels everywhere."
When near-term projects slide into 2027, they land in the same window as projects already scheduled for 2027 and 2028. Here's how that queue looked in the most recent public records:
| Project | Location | Planned start, per source |
|---|---|---|
| NC 73 widening, R-5721B | Beatties Ford Road to West Catawba Avenue, four lanes divided | 2028 in the STIP; Summer 2028 on NCDOT's page |
| Townley Road Connector | Bridge and two-lane road from Townley Road in Birkdale Village to Northpointe Executive Park Drive | Fall 2028, per February 2026 reporting |
| Stumptown Road Extension | NC 115 to Aberfeld Road, with Seagle Street extended | Fall 2028, per February 2026 reporting |
| Ferrelltown Parkway, phase two | Connecting Huntersville-Concord Road to Ramah Church Road | Summer 2027, per February 2026 reporting |
R-5721B's price tag is moving as well. The 2026–2035 STIP lists $77.7 million in total funds. The NCDOT Board's July 2026 agenda shows a funding breakdown that totals $95.6 million, with construction money starting in fiscal year 2028. The Stumptown project is estimated at more than $25 million. It would close two public railroad crossings and four private ones.
Downtown's main crossroads, where Gilead Road and Mt. Holly-Huntersville Road meet NC 115, is still unsettled. The Town formally rejected an NCDOT plan that would have put six lanes on the Gilead Road arm, and a downtown transportation study was expected to finish this summer. We didn't find any published recommendations or Town Board action from that study.
The one piece residents can look forward to
Not every barrel in the Exit 25 package is about car lanes. The pedestrian bridge in the bundle will cross NC 73 west of Northcross Drive. NCDOT says it's meant to provide greenway access and make walking and biking safer. According to the project's public input page, it connects a new segment running from Chilgrove Lane to NC 73 with the existing McDowell Creek Greenway. Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation describes that greenway as 2.82 miles running from Magnolia Estates Drive to NC 73 at Birkdale Village, linking Cornelius and Huntersville.
Today the greenway stops at a highway. The bridge's construction timing is tied to the same contract that was just postponed, so the greenway link and the interchange work will move on the same schedule.
Questions to bring to a showing near Sam Furr or Gilead
None of the documents above can tell you exactly which driveways, medians or ramps will change. We couldn't find a published contract completion date, lane-closure hours or access plan for the Exit 25 package, and anyone who claims otherwise before the bids are read is guessing. These questions can be answered today:
- Has the November 17, 2026 letting happened, and if so, which contractor won and what completion date is in the contract?
- Has the Town issued the Gilead Road West notice to proceed it expected for February 4, 2027?
- Is the home's daily route on any segment in the 2027–2028 queue, such as NC 73 west toward Beatties Ford Road, Townley Road in Birkdale, or Stumptown Road?
- Has the downtown crossroads study been released, and what did it recommend for the Gilead Road arm?
Quick answers
Is construction starting at Exit 25 this fall? Not based on the records available as of October 12, 2026. Bids for the combined contract are scheduled to be read November 17, 2026, and construction can't start until after a contract is awarded.
Is the $35 million widening WSOC reported the same as the NC 73 project? No. That story covers West Catawba Avenue from Jetton Road to Sam Furr Road.
Why do different sources show different costs for the same project? Project pages, STIP editions and Board agendas get updated at different times. U-5765, for example, appears as $78.9 million on NCDOT's page and $115.63 million in the 2026–2035 STIP.
If you're comparing homes near Exit 25, Birkdale or the Gilead Road corridor, Carla Agnini can pull the latest letting results and Town notices for the exact streets on your list. That way your decision is based on the current construction calendar instead of last spring's. Your Lake Lifestyle Starts Here.
