A new interchange on Interstate 85 should relieve traffic on heavily congested W.T. Harris Boulevard when it opens in the spring.

And an important widening, approved by the state in early December, starts soon on Mallard Creek Church Road next to UNC Charlotte.

But in northeast Charlotte - the fastest-growing area in the state's most populous county - work on the two most important projects - the opening of I-485 and the widening of I-85 - are years away.

And traffic keeps growing.

Congestion is threatening to overwhelm University City and Derita, while University Research Park and its 23,000 jobs are in the middle of it all.

"Since First Union expanded and the (four new) schools opened, traffic has just exploded," said driver Marie Powell, who lives and works in the area.

The University area has almost 30,000 jobs and 94,000 residents, a 97percent population increase since 1990.

Two years ago, 75,000 cars a day drove the nearby stretch of I-85. It has jumped to 90,000, a 20percent growth rate that's twice the state average.

Yet, the area will be the last to get the Charlotte outerbelt, which should open from U.S. 21 to I-85 in about 2008. And the widening of I-85 to the Lowe's Motor Speedway area won't be complete until about 2010.

"It seems there never is any money to take care of the traffic problems in the University City area," said driver Pam Fawcett-Brandon. "We do feel quite neglected up here."

Malcolm Graham, the Charlotte City Council member who represents the area, says, "We're playing a waiting game for roads as the development keeps growing. It's scary to know we're waiting for roads that are still six and seven years away."

Graham promises to push northeast Charlotte for the next rapid-transit line, even though north Mecklenburg is seen as the front-runner. The Metropolitan Transit Commission will decide in June what's built.

For now, however, the most encouraging news is the state's making good on then-Gov. Jim Hunt's 1996 promise to improve access to University Research Park to serve First Union's 1million-square-foot expansion.

The centerpiece of Hunt's road package opens in the spring - the new exit on I-85 and a four-lane road called City Boulevard. Their construction will allow many research-park workers to reach the interstate without driving on W.T. Harris, said Tom Thrower, state traffic engineer for the Charlotte area.

But there's a downside. Engineers say the on-and-off movements that interchanges allow slow freeway traffic. And the new road will take more cars near the research park's four public schools.

City Boulevard will be complete in 2005, when Charlotte extends it east of I-85 to the U.S.29/N.C. 49 connector, which will be rebuilt.

When that second stretch opens, City Boulevard will be renamed University City Boulevard, and northeast Charlotte will have another badly needed east-west connector.

Other city and state street improvements in the research park area will take the rest of the decade to complete. City officials expect to put a road bond issue before voters next year that will include money to plan for at least two northeast Charlotte improvements.

They include an extension of Nevin Road and a study on how to improve the two-lane section of Sugar Creek Road. That road is hemmed in by the railroad on the south and older Derita businesses on the north.

Drivers will be most affected by widening I-85 and completing I-485, the Charlotte outerbelt.

At $175million, the I-85 project is so costly that the state will tackle it in three phases. Work starts in fall 2003 to add extra lanes from the U.S. 29/N.C. 49 connector to I-485.

Widening continues in 2008 to Speedway Boulevard near Lowe's Motor Speedway. The section north to N.C. 73 in Cabarrus County comes last, but a date hasn't been set.

"Getting the money to build all these projects is the problem," says Bill Finger, Charlotte's assistant transportation director.

The final section of the 65-mile Charlotte outerbelt will be built in the University area, when work starts in 2005 between U.S. 21 and I-85.

"The good news is it will be eight lanes," Thrower says. It will help move traffic between I-85 and I-77 without going into Charlotte.

Roads are just part of the transportation picture in northeast Charlotte, Finger said. That community has grown up with cul-de-sacs and widely scattered developments, a combination that makes the area especially hard for rapid-transit lines to serve.

And the lack of sidewalks makes walking dangerous.

That leaves cars as practically the only choice.

"You take your life in your hands if you try to walk around here," said Julie Burt, who works at UNCC. "And if you try to drive during lunch, it's just awful."

Council member Graham has lived in the University area almost a decade. In that time, his commute has gone from 10 minutes to 40 as more families discover the jobs and new neighborhoods in the area.

Traffic and congestion are on everyone's mind, he says.