Who knows how many millions of minutes commuters have spent sitting in stop-and-go traffic on the southern stretch of I-485 and on Independence Boulevard since the state first promised five years ago to add express lanes to relieve congestion. It’s probably in the billions, not millions.

Plans for the lanes have been as stalled as the traffic. Consider this congestion: The lanes became part of the plan in 2013. In 2015, the N.C. Department of Transportation said it intended to sign a construction contract by late 2016 or early 2017. Then it backed that up to the summer of 2017. Then it pushed that back to December 2017. Then it pushed that back to the summer of 2018.

What’s the hold up? Can we get some traffic moving here?

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The stretch of I-485 running south and east of I-77 is one of the busiest highways in the state. The segment near Carolina Place Mall averaged 146,000 vehicles a day in 2016 – a 32 percent increase from just two years earlier – and it has surely risen further in the two years since. The remainder of that southern leg, as well as Independence leaving uptown, are also frequently jammed.

We may finally see some movement in coming months. Officials from the N.C. Turnpike Authority met with the region’s transportation planning group (known as the CRTPO) on Wednesday. It spelled out project details and this timetable: Hold public meetings this spring, take bids and award contracts this summer and open the first phase of the Independence (U.S. 74) project by the end of next year and finish the 485 project by early 2022.

A DOT spokeswoman said the delay is partly a response to the I-77 tolls debacle. DOT wanted to consider “lessons learned” from that episode, one of which was “that extensive public engagement is critical throughout the project development process.”

Like I-77, the 485 and U.S. 74 projects involve tolls, so they could raise the public’s ire. There are important differences, though. Unlike with I-77, these lanes would be built, owned, operated and maintained by the state, not by a Spain-based firm. There would be no 50-year contract that bans building more lanes or making other changes. And while no free lanes are being added to I-77, a new general purpose lane would be added to I-485 along with the toll lanes.

The details will matter, but given the state’s financial realities, we can swallow this approach. DOT is still working on the financial model but expects to minimize shortfalls and end up in far better financial shape than free lanes would allow.

Mecklenburg commissioner Jim Puckett, a Republican, has been one of the most vocal opponents of the I-77 toll lanes.

“I’d be willing to accept what they’re doing on 485 on I-77 tomorrow,” Puckett told the editorial board Friday. “Give us one new general purpose lane and one toll lane and the state maintains it? I’d say that’s a victory and would work for us for the next two to three decades.”

At this pace, they might take that long to build. Let’s hit the gas.