Drivers on I-95 might have to pay to travel

COLUMBIA -- In the coming decade, Interstate 95 drivers traveling in Virginia and North Carolina could begin paying tolls under plans advancing in both states.

Whether South Carolina would follow is a question on many minds.

South Carolina Transportation Secretary Robert St. Onge says there are no plans for the state to ask for permission to toll the 199-mile stretch of interstate.

“We are interested in tolling and listen to what other states are doing,” he said. “But I don’t sense a lot of stomach for tolling in this state.”

Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Larry Grooms said he believes political opposition would keep tolls from occurring now on I-95.

“But some of that opposition, I think, lessens when North Carolina begins tolling,” he said.

Paying tolls on I-95, the major thoroughfare along the East Coast from Maine to Miami, has been a fact of life in the Northeast for decades, since the interstate covered existing toll roads when it was built.

But tolling the interstate south of Maryland has picked up steam with a perfect storm of conditions, including a crumbling interstate and road system nationwide, the inability of states to maintain their roads with existing fuel taxes and the failure of Congress in recent years to address the issue.

States are prohibited from tolling existing interstates by law.

But states with tolls that existed before the law are exempted, and the federal government is offering a pilot program that allows states to toll interstates if the revenue is used for specific projects on the highways where the tolls are collected.

The program has three slots, which have been filled by Missouri, Virginia and North Carolina.

Last September, Virginia received approval from the Federal Highway Administration to proceed with plans to toll I-95 south of Fredericksburg.

According to the office of Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, the tolls would generate about $50 million a year and would be used for construction, repairs, widening and safety improvements.

“The entire I-95 corridor averages a level of service of D, and some more urban portions are F during peak periods,” said Virginia Transportation Secretary Sean T. Connaugh. “This level of service is unacceptable anywhere, let alone on the most traveled corridor in Virginia.”

To receive final federal approval, Virginia must submit an environmental study of its plan, detail where the tolls will be collected and certify the tolls will be used to replace all other federal monies that would have been spent on the sections of the interstate being tolled.

Virginia officials hope to begin taking tolls within two years.

In North Carolina, a state-commissioned study has recommended tolling that state’s entire 182-mile I-95 span to help pay for $4 billion in road improvements.

Tolling would pay for the second phase of improvements, according to the study. The first phase would widen 50 miles of the interstate to eight lanes. Construction would start in 2016.

Tolls for the North Carolina project would run about $20 from border to border, or a range of 6.4 cents to 19.2 cents per mile, depending on the section traveled.

The moves have drawn protests from trucking association officials, who argue they would send many truckers onto smaller, inadequate highways and increase congestion on the interstate.

Rick Todd, president and CEO of the South Carolina Trucking Association, said he isn’t concerned with the impact of tolls on Virginia or North Carolina’s I-95 because they are years away and now the only slots available under the federal plan are taken.

South Carolina law also prohibits tolling existing highways. He said, however, that part of the debate over the federal highway funding bill is whether to give states the authority to use tolls on interstates.

“The politics of it are what are we going to do if the two states above us are going to toll their stretches of 95,” he said. “Why shouldn’t we? We’ll have to figure that out.”

Unlike I-95’s more northern stretch, Todd said South Carolina’s portion is used primarily by tourists and truckers through rural lands. Tolling wouldn’t impact commuters the way it does in the Northeast, he said, but it would likely kill any plans for distribution centers along I-95 and add to freight costs.

Currently, South Carolina Department of Transportation officials rate the pavement condition of about 42 percent of the state’s interstates as poor or fair. About 50 of the interstates’ interchanges require reconstruction over the next two decades, and about 120 bridges on the interstates are rated functionally obsolete, with 23 structurally deficient.

The average cost to add an additional interstate lane in each direction is $20 million per mile, according to DOT. Interchanges cost between $35 and $45 million each, the agency says.

South Carolina’s DOT has a maintenance backlog of billions of dollars and is weathering the aftereffects of a cash-flow crisis that resulted in delayed lettings for state-funded projects and calls for reform by legislators, who haven’t raised the state’s gas tax since 1987.

About half the state’s road system, the fourth-largest state-maintained system in the nation, is secondary roads, which must be paid for through state dollars.

The state has only two toll roads, one on Hilton Head Island and the other in southern Greenville County, the Southern Connector, which went through bankruptcy last year.

Todd said he doesn’t believe Georgia will implement tolls because it recently finished spending $2 billion on its portion of I-95.

He said the pavement condition of South Carolina’s portion of I-95 isn’t that bad, though the highway can get congested on weekends and holidays.

Grooms said he supports using tolls to build proposed interstates, such as I-73 to Myrtle Beach, but thinks right now it is unlikely lawmakers would allow tolls on existing interstates, even though many of those who would pay the tolls are from out of state.

“If Georgia and North Carolina began to toll, you would see a lot of opposition evaporate,” he said.

Not everyone thinks tolls are a bad idea if they are used to repair the interstate.

“As highway construction and maintenance needs in the state have increased, NCDOT is short of money needed for transportation infrastructure maintenance and repair,” said Cathy Hein, a spokesman for AAA Carolinas.

“I-95 is one of the most heavily traveled corridors in North Carolina, and the widening of the road will improve the safety. The only way to really be able to finance the widening is to build it through tolls.”

Another option is to build additional lanes dedicated for high-occupancy, which can then be tolled. Such widening, called HOT lanes, have been used to battle congestion in urban areas nationwide.

Todd said he doesn’t know if the traffic volumes in South Carolina would justify trying HOT lanes.

Ultimately, he said, the issue is a bigger one — how South Carolina drivers want to pay for critically needed improvements.

“The public is going to have to decide, do they want to pay a fuel tax, or do they want to pay a toll tax or do they want to pay a higher property tax or higher sales tax or higher registration fee?” he asked.

“Because the money’s got to come from somewhere. And we’re talking about a lot of money.”