RI asks Feds for permission to put tolls on I-95

[jimmy olsen]

Makes me even less likely to go to NYC.

A lot of people pass that border for work in NYC or Boston/Providence, very inconvenient.

http://news.bostonherald.com/news/national/northeast/view/20110820ri_says_toll_on_95_needed_to_close_dot_budget_gap/srvc=home&position=recent

R.I. says toll on 95 needed to close DOT budget gap
By Paul Grimaldi / The Providence Journal, R.I.
Saturday, August 20, 2011 -

PROVIDENCE -- Rhode Island has formally applied to the federal government for permission to start charging drivers a toll on Route 95 near the Connecticut border.

The application came three years after state officials first considered the idea as they studied ways to maintain Rhode Island's aging road system.

"It's been a long gestation" for this request, said Michael P. Lewis, director of the state Department of Transportation.

The June application calls for installing tollbooths between exits 1 and 2 on both sides of Route 95 in Hopkinton.

In a letter to the Federal Highway Administration, the DOT's deputy director, Phillip Kydd, says tolls are necessary to bridge a funding gap in Rhode Island's highway budget.

The DOT proposes using toll revenue to cover the cost of replacing the Route 95 viaduct in Providence, expand the Route 95/Route 4 connector to the Quonset Business Park in North Kingstown, and for general maintenance of federal highways within Rhode Island.

The DOT estimates it will cost $140 million to replace the viaduct and $75 million to build the connector that would link Route 95 north to Route 4 south and Route 4 north to Route 95 south.

Although constructing tollbooths would be years off, news of the application drew a sharp rebuke Thursday from the state representative whose district in southern Rhode Island includes the proposed location.

Rep. Brian Patrick Kennedy, D-Hopkinton, chided Lewis, saying the agency is trying to pay for road work in other parts of the state by taking money from people who live in his district.

"I fail to see how singling out the people of southwestern Rhode Island to cover the costs of these road and bridge repairs is a fair solution," Kennedy wrote in a letter to Lewis.

The application was supported in a separate letter by Governor Chafee, House Speaker Gordon D. Fox and Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed.

The June timing was the result, Lewis said, of the DOT waiting for the state to finalize the 2012 budget. Also, the agency wanted to submit its application before other states that are looking to grab the last of three grants available in a federal program that expires at the end of September.

The idea for tollbooths originated three years ago, during the Carcieri administration, with a Blue Ribbon Panel on Transportation Funding.

Installing tolls near the Connecticut border could give the state an estimated $40 million a year, roughly the amount the state borrows annually to match federal dollars for highway projects.

Lewis said toll fees are yet to be set, but they would probably be similar to that on the Pell Bridge, which connects Jamestown and Newport. Most motorists pay $4 to cross the bridge.

The stretch of Route 95 being considered for tolls would have to be widened by at least one lane on each side to accommodate both drivers who use electronic transponders to pay tolls and those who pay cash, Lewis said.


Installing tolls always comes with the prospect that drivers will look for routes around the booths. The DOT considers the southern stretch of Route 95 harder to get around than the northern stretch, Lewis said.

"It's too urban," Lewis said of the Route 95 stretch at the Rhode Island-Massachusetts border. "There would be too many alternatives for traffic to divert off [the highway]."

The southern part of Route 95 also is used more heavily by out-of-state drivers passing through Rhode Island than by residents.

Lewis acknowledged that the concerns of locals who use the highway around Hopkinton would have to be taken into account, possibly with transponders like the ones in use on the Pell Bridge, which offer a "pretty significant discount."

The state would need permission from the federal government and then the General Assembly before charging tolls. After receiving the approvals, it could take two more years before tollbooths are erected.

"This is not a done deal," Lewis said.

___

[dps]

Here's a hint Timmay--you're not gonna drive from Korea to NYC anyway.

[Tamas]

fuck da' feds

[Neil]

Tolls on the interstate?  America is kind of a silly place, isn't it?

[Zanza]

There are a couple of tolls on the I-95 south of NY, so I don't see how this is even newsworthy...?

[Caliga]

Tolls on the interstate?  America is kind of a silly place, isn't it?

We don't have tolls down here.  Only silly, greedy Jew Yankees have them. 

[DGuller]

There are a couple of tolls on the I-95 south of NY, so I don't see how this is even newsworthy...?

It's newsworthy because tolls on interstates are exceptions, not the rule.  Interstate highways are supposed to be without tolls, but since the interstate system absorbed many existing highways, the ones that were tolled before were allowed to be tolled after.  That wasn't a complete freebie either, since tolled highways don't get federal highway funds.  I'm not aware of any situation where previously free interstates were converted to toll roads, and IMO, that would set a very dangerous precedent to allow it.

[Caliga]

There's talk of that happening down here on I-65 where it crosses over the Ohio into Indiana.  Supposedly the tolls would be used to pay for the construction of another bridge further upriver that would link the Louisville beltway to the (much smaller) beltway that encloses Jeffersonville, Clarksville, and New Albany.  It would certainly make it more convenient for people like me to get over to the Indiana side of the river.

Kentucky actually has a very good record of building a new highway, financing it with bonds, using temporary tolls to pay the bonds off, and then getting rid of the tolls as promised.  For some reason Yankees can't seem to stick to plans like that.

[Neil]

Well, New England is far more corrupt than most other jurisdictions.

[grumbler]

Kentucky actually has a very good record of building a new highway, financing it with bonds, using temporary tolls to pay the bonds off, and then getting rid of the tolls as promised.  For some reason Yankees can't seem to stick to plans like that.

That has happened in many jurisdictions, not just your hillbilly one.  I think that Neil is probably right; you hillbillies are too stupid to attempt NJ-style corruption.

RI should be allowed to place these tolls only after completing a flyover that allows people to completely bypass the toll and the state, and even then only by eschewing all Federal highway funds bar those needed to maintain the flyover.

[DontSayBanana]

We don't have tolls down here.  Only silly, greedy Jew Yankees have them. 

Delaware.

And you don't have I-95 running through Kentucky.

[Caliga]

That has happened in many jurisdictions, not just your hillbilly one.

Yeah I know, I was just throwing Ky. out there as an example of where the concept of "tolls to pay for highway construction" actually works.

[grumbler]

Yeah I know, I was just throwing Ky. out there as an example of where the concept of "tolls to pay for highway construction" actually works.

  Both you and I were talking somewhat tongue in cheek.

The limited success of toll-elimination is generally due, IMO, to the high cost of maintaining some roads, particularly those in area where weather is bad (excludes NJ and Delaware). No sooner is a road paid off than it needs to be rebuilt.

[DGuller]

If there were no toll booths in the Northeast, then where would you ambush hot-blooded heads of Italian mafia families?

[Darth Wagtaros]

If there were no toll booths in the Northeast, then where would you ambush hot-blooded heads of Italian mafia families?

Anywhere that serves good pasta and cheap wine.