There is, however, one exception to the rule. In 1998, Congress created a pilot program under which up to three states can start collecting tolls on existing interstates to fund improvements on those roads. So far, though, no states have used it.
Virginia and Missouri both have federal permission to move ahead with the idea, but neither has the tolls up and running. Last year, Virginia amended its request and asked the federal government to let it place tolls on Interstate 95 near the North Carolina border. That request is still pending.
Pennsylvania also applied for the exception, in order to put tolls on Interstate 80 across the northern stretch of the state. The federal government rejected that plan, largely because it would have diverted some of the toll revenue from the highway to support public transit in Philadelphia.
Edward Rendell, who was Pennsylvania’s governor at the time, argued in a recent congressional hearing that the conditions were too stringent. Placing tolls on I-80 would have allowed the state to increase its annual maintenance budget for the road from $90 million to $200 million, he said.
"States simply do not have that capacity without you allowing us to toll," Rendell told a Senate panel in May. "So job one is lift the cap on tolling. It’ll be our decision. It'll be governors and legislatures (who) decide whether to toll or not. But for Lord’s sake, lift the cap."
Rhode Island hopes to qualify for the spot left open when Pennsylvania’s application failed. Lewis, the transportation director, says Rhode Island officials learned from Pennsylvania’s experience. Under the plan they are now developing, tolls collected on I-95 would go only toward improvements to the interstate itself.
The interstate has plenty of needs. Right now, Rhode Island is wrapping up a decade-long project to reroute traffic through downtown Providence, but the state will be paying for this project, called the Iway, out of its share of federal highway money for another 12 years. Now, the state is starting to fix up the Pawtucket River bridge, near Massachusetts, where the heavy trucks are being diverted. Repairs on that bridge alone will cost the state half of its annual federal apportionment, Lewis says. Next on the list of repairs is the Providence viaduct.
So far, though, US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has been skeptical. "If a state or a governor or DOT wants to add capacity or two lanes on each side, we think that’s a good use of tolls, and we have supported that kind of approach," he told a Rhode Island television station. "We don’t support the kind of approach, though, for roads that have already been built with taxpayer dollars then to be tolled."
Lewis hopes LaHood will change his tune once Rhode Island submits its proposal, most likely this summer. In any event, the state is a long way from putting up toll booths. The General Assembly would still have to approve the plan, and engineering work would have to be done. The toll plazas would not open for at least another two years.
Challenging restrictions
With the highway bill being rewritten and states scrambling for more road money, the issue of tolling interstates is not likely to go away soon. "Bake sales," Lewis says, "aren't going to do this."
Tolling, for example, is part of the discussion of how to improve North Carolina’s stretch of Interstate 95. The state is in the middle of a two-year study on the future of the aging highway, and officials there have said that tolling is one of the options on the table.
The federal restrictions on tolling were put into place originally so that motorists would not have to pay twice to use the highways: once at the pump, when they pay a gas tax, and a second time at the toll booth. But some of the roads that were built under the original program are now more than half a century old. "You can argue," says Ron Utt of the Heritage Foundation, "that these projects have been fully depreciated."
Allowing tolls on interstates, Utt says, could become the "fallback position" for members of Congress, who have few other options for finding more road money. It would also put the onus on state officials, who would have to choose whether to raise tolls and how to spend the money.
"This could be a big deal if this is part of the reauthorization," Utt says, "but at the same time it really depends on whether the states are going to use the opportunities provided to them."
— Contact Daniel C. Vock at dvock@stateline.org.
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