Our local government is pushing to toll I-95. The local citizens are fighting hard over this because its used by so many North Carolinians on a daily basis.
It would take several years to get it built and supposedly they're going to use the money for I-95 projects such as widening to multiple lanes near Fayetteville.
Curious. What other interstates are tolled around the US? How does it work? Is there a toll booth at every interchange on the interstate? Its estimated that traveling I-95 from Va. to SC would run someone around $20.
lawnspecialties wrote: Our local government is pushing to toll I-95. The local citizens are fighting hard over this because its used by so many North Carolinians on a daily basis.
It would take several years to get it built and supposedly they're going to use the money for I-95 projects such as widening to multiple lanes near Fayetteville.
Curious. What other interstates are tolled around the US? How does it work? Is there a toll booth at every interchange on the interstate? Its estimated that traveling I-95 from Va. to SC would run someone around $20.
Interstates per se are not tolled. However, there are toll roads that were incorporated into the Interstate system. Examples being the WV, PA, and Ohio Turnpikes.
In Virginia, the old Richmond-Petersburg Toll Road was originally incorporated into I-95, and for many years the toll remained. The tolls on that portion of I-95 didn't come off until the I-295 loop around Richmond and Petersburg was completed.
I haven't heard of interstates having tolls installed after the fact, but I wouldn't put it past any government.
As for toll booths, I've seen it both ways. The old Richmond-Petersburg Toll Road originally had 4 toll booths in the relatively short distance between the cities.
Many of the other long distance toll roads tend to have the toll booths at the on and off ramps of toll road.
Erroll, Mary, Duffy the Badger Dog plus "Ollie"
2009 HiLo Towlite 2209T
2005 F150 Supercab 4x4, w/ 5.4L
after driving all over the US. I also have never seen a interstate tolled. Leave it up to the incompetent idiots in Raliegh to double, and triple, tax it's own citizens. We already have some of the highest fuel taxes in the US, and it went up again this year.
Thanks Bev.
OR it could be that they are trying to stop NC residents from driving to SC for their fuel.
For those of you that don't think that Interstates are not tolled - come on up to New England !
JM2CW
John
John '46
Joyce '46 (DW)
GOOD SAM LIFE MEMBERS
Heidie '00 (#1 Guard Dog, 11 lbs) & Reggie (#2 Guard Dog in training, 11 lbs)
'05 Winnebago Voyage 35A, Workhorse W22
'03 Cavalier Toad w/Sterling Aluminum Tow Bar & Brake Buddy
Adding tolls to existing interstates requires permission of the Fed. Highway Adm. I believe Virginia has worked out those details on one stretch of I95, but I don't think tolling has commenced yet. Other cases have been discussed, including I80 across Wyoming.
* This post was
edited 03/19/12 10:50am by paulj *
jchonroad wrote: For those of you that don't think that Interstates are not tolled - come on up to New England !
JM2CW
John
But were those toll roads that were incorporated into the intertate system?
Has any NE state taken a "free" interstate road and applied tolls later?
I know in West Virginia, the WV TP was in existence before the interstate system. I-64 and I-77 were basically piggy backed onto the existing toll road from approximately Beckley, WV to near Charleston, WV.
NC has Fed approval for this as I understand it, and no other State will be approved to do it till after this test. It is being used as some type of a program , 2015 sticks in my mind as the effective date. I'll see if I can find the article and post it.
Jack
2003 Flair R33
Land Rover Diso 4 down w/Blue Ox and Break Buddy
Saepe Expertus,Semper Fidelis , Fratres Aeterni
"Often Tested, Always Faithful, Brothers Forever"
Raleigh, N.C. — Second District Congresswoman Renee Ellmers is fighting a plan that would allow North Carolina to collect tolls on Interstate 95.
The Federal Highway Administration gave the state Department of Transportation preliminary permission last month to pursue tolling on the interstate to help pay for highway improvements.
Ellmers has introduced a bill in Congress that would prohibit tolls on I-95, saying that the DOT hasn't demonstrated that improvements couldn't be implemented without a toll, as required by law.
North Carolina drivers shouldn't have to bear the burden of a toll in addition to paying one of the highest gas taxes in the country, she said.
Many people who have attended public hearings about the I-95 tolling plan have asked that the state find other ways to fund road improvements, but DOT officials say the state has to maintain more roads with shrinking revenue from the gas tax.
North Carolina, which is one of three states participating in a pilot project allowing tolling on existing interstates, consistently ranks in the top two states for the number of roads it manages. It also ranks near the bottom nationally in dollars spent per mile of highway.
A 2009 study commissioned by the DOT said that driving all 182 miles of I-95 in North Carolina would cost about $19.20 in tolls.
DOT officials said they are considering a decreased tolling rate for frequent users, such as people who commute to work on I-95.
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Plans to charge a toll on Interstate 95 in North Carolina will make it more difficult for businesses to quickly and cheaply ship goods up and down the East Coast's chief thoroughfare, critics say.
North Carolina, Virginia and Missouri all are considering tolls as a way to pay for expanding and upgrading interstates. Supporters say drivers from other states will pay much of the costs.
But like most highways, I-95 is itself a hub of businesses drawn to the asphalt link to markets from Maine to Florida.
Food Lion, Wal-Mart, and Lowe's are some of the companies with North Carolina distribution centers, each employing hundreds of workers, near the highway. The world's largest hog slaughterhouse operated by Smithfield Foods and one of the nation's largest food-service distributors for restaurant chains built near the interstate.
"There's nothing really good for my business that can come out of this. I'm highly dependent upon interstate travel and commerce to make my business successful," said Ernie Brame, who manages one of the highway's largest truck stops in Kenly. The always-open Kenly 95 Petro plaza employs about 170 people at its truck repair shop, fuel center and three restaurants.
Under the current proposal, cars would be charged $19.20 for using the interstate's entire 182-mile length through North Carolina. If projections that trucks will be charged nearly three times that hold true, Doug Taylor said that could increase costs for his trucking business by $600,000 to $2 million a year.
"We couldn't eat that," said Taylor, president and CEO of Taylor Express Inc. in Fayetteville, which employs about 300. He said he would have to pass the costs along to his customers, primarily tire manufacturers in the Midwest and South where his trucks deliver commodity ingredients.
The home-improvement warehouse retailer Lowe's Cos. says highway tolls might eventually filter through to prices consumers see in stores. The company's distribution center just off I-95 near the Virginia line is a beehive, with trucks from suppliers coming in and Lowe's trucks heading out with products to 120 stores in the Carolinas, Virginia and Maryland.
"Certainly tolls on product carriers in and out of that regional distribution center in Garysburg would likely increase transportation costs, potentially by several million dollars annually. That would hinder our ability to keep our prices low for consumers," Lowe's spokeswoman Karen Cobb said.
The Federal Highway Administration last month picked North Carolina as the last of three states to participate in a national pilot program allowing them to fund road reconstruction by converting free interstates to toll roads. The decision sidelined bids by Rhode Island and Arizona, at least until Congress expands the toll program in a new highway authorization bill.
North Carolina's reserved slot means much more evaluation ahead before final federal approval and tolls can start being collected in 2019. That includes studying the economic impact on businesses of charging to travel, said Roberto Canales, project manager for the I-95 study for the North Carolina Transportation Department.
Virginia, which previously removed tolls from I-95 in 1992, is evaluating potential economic impacts on business along the entire corridor in an analysis scheduled for completion later this year, state DOT spokeswoman Tamara Rollison said.
North Carolina anticipates nine toll zones spaced at 20-mile intervals along the highway. Motorists would pay for the distance traveled through an all-electronic method using pre-paid transponders or billing by mail after license plates are recorded.
Academic research and common sense indicates that motorists react to highway tolls by trying to avoid the costs. In North Carolina, U.S. 301 parallels I-95 for most of its length.
Commuters, long-distance motorists, and businesses that located near the interstate to take advantage of the route's speed and convenience will all decide whether taking a more-developed and slower route would be worth the savings, said Robert Foyle, director of highway systems research at North Carolina State University's Institute for Transportation Research and Education.
U.S. Rep. Renee Ellmers, R-N.C., said after hearing from businesses and constituents along the interstate through her district she introduced legislation last week to block the state's Department of Transportation from using tolls to pay the estimated $4.4 billion cost of expanding and upgrading I-95. Ellmers and other tolling opponents argue the state has long misspent what it collects from one of the country's highest gas taxes.
Tolling's backers argue that the broader impact is positive by funding construction that otherwise would be delayed.
Missouri's Department of Economic Development estimates that besides increased traffic efficiency, rebuilding and expanding a 200-mile stretch of Interstate 70 with revenue from tolls would create an average of about 6,100 new jobs a year paying about $34,000 for decades. The jobs would come from project construction, asphalt and concrete suppliers, plus spinoff employment, the agency said in a January report.
Missouri's economic development agency and its Department of Transportation could not provide further details last week explaining how the estimates were reached.
Not all business owners along I-95 are concerned that tolls will hurt their bottom line.
Skip Mertz said he draws customers from Canada to Florida to his Fayetteville hobby shop, which specializes in radio-controlled trains, trucks, cars, boats and helicopters. If traffic decreases on I-95, he may remove a billboard for his Great American Gift, Toy & Hobby Co. or otherwise adjust his advertising, but doesn't expect big sales losses at his "big boy's toy store" a half-mile off the highway, Mertz said.
"In my situation, there's not a lot of ways to get around me," he said.
Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/03/10/1921361/nc-businesses-along-i-95-tally.html#storylink=cpy
Offline
