Tolls Could Be Returning to CT to Pay for Rebuiding Infrastructure
If you were a resident of the New England prior to 1985, you remember the amount of long backups at the many toll booths installed along the I-95 corridor to help pay for the buildout of this vital roadway. In the days well before EZPass and automated, truck drivers and communters needed to keep a roll of quarters in the car to pay the $0.25 tolls along the numerous gated toll booths throughout Connecticut.
In 1985 those booths were elminate following a 1983 truck crash that killed seven people at the Stratford toll plaza. 30 years later, those tolls could be coming back to Connecticut as Gov. Ned Lamont searches for funds to help repair the crumbling bridges and roads of the Nutmeg state. Governor Lamont has proposed to toll all cars and trucks on Connecticut’s roadways, which is estimated to generate nearly $800 million in annual revenues for the state:
Trucks-only tolling is estimated to bring in $45 million to $200 million, Drajewicz said, and the state Department of Transportation projects $500 million a year is needed just to repair bridges.Even more is needed for improvements and upgrades to highways and other transportation systems. Moreover, Lamont has pledged to borrow less money than former Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, and the gasoline tax is projected to decline because of fuel efficiency.
Source: Lamont’s highway toll option could raise $800M a year
Fortunately, given the technology of contactless and digital payment systems that are part of the Digital Infrastructure investment theme, the impact of such tolls should only be felt in drivers’ wallets, and not a return to the miles long congestion at the old-fashion toll booths on a holiday weekend.
