WASHINGTON — Virginia has received conditional approval to put tolls on Interstate 95 under the federal government’s Interstate Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Pilot Program.
The tolls would be used to finance the widening of I-95 between I-295 and the North Carolina border, widen shoulders, and improve pavements on more than 700 lane-miles within the corridor.
“The entire I-95 corridor averages a level of service of 'D’ and some more urban portions are 'F’ during peak periods,” said state Virginia Transportation Secretary Sean Connaughton. “This level of service is unacceptable anywhere, let alone on the most traveled corridor in Virginia.”
VDOT must still determine how tolls would be assessed, their amount, where booths would be located, and how it would spend the revenue before it can receive final approval from the Federal Highway Administration. Virginia could become the first state south of Maryland to put tolls on I-95. The state had transferred its application from an earlier plan to toll part of I-81.
Adding interstate tolls is part of a $4 billion, three-year transportation program passed earlier this year. The program involves some bond financing. The revenue on the tolled part of I-95 would let the state shift some of its federal interstate maintenance funds to work on other interstates in Virginia, according to VDOT’s chief financial officer, John Lawson. Tolling would not affect any of the state’s other transportation spending or bonding.
Gov. Bob McDonnell spoke last year of proposing tolls of $1 or $2 an axle running from the North Carolina border to Fredericksburg, but Monday’s announcement wasn’t specific. VDOT projects that tolls could raise $250 million over the first five years of the program and over $50 million annually after that.
Congress has only allowed three slots in this pilot program because of its traditional aversion to converting “free” highways into “not-free” highways, according to Neil Gray, director of government affairs for the International Bridge Tunnel and Turnpike Association. “The congressional imperative is basically if you’re going to do it, don’t do it as a cash cow per se, do it for fundamental reconstruction,” he said.
