Rhode Island DOT moves forward with truck tolling plan

The Rhode Island Department of Transportation said it will implement bridge tolls throughout the state for tractor trailer operators, a plan that has been met with protests from trucking associations, following federal approval.

   The Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) is moving forward with a plan to implement bridge tolls throughout the state for tractor trailer operators.
   RIDOT said the plan is part of its RhodeWorks program, which now has support from the Federal Highway Administration (FHA) but has been met with strong opposition from trucking industry advocacy groups.
   “For too long, our state kicked the can down the road on infrastructure, allowing our roads and bridges to crumble and fall into total disrepair,” said Gov. Gina Raimondo.
   She added that with the federal government’s approval of the toll program, “we are going to keep moving forward as quickly as we can to deliver the infrastructure Rhode Islanders deserve.”
   When the plan was introduced last summer, however, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association and Rhode Island Trucking Association (RITA) sent a letter to the FHA questioning Rhode Island’s authority to toll truckers on interstates. Bill Graves, president of the American Trucking Associations (ATA) at the time and a former governor of Kansas, called the tolling scheme “highway robbery.”
   ATA and RITA said in a statement Friday the groups have sent a letter to the state of Rhode Island asking for information on outreach for communities likely to see increased truck traffic as a result of the state’s “extortionary” truck tolling plan.
   The ATA has a long-standing policy of opposition toward tolling existing interstate highways for efficiency and safety reasons. The group argues that toll facilities are a much higher administrative and operational expense than a fuel tax, and that truckers could potentially begin taking crowded secondary roads to avoid highway tolls.
   “According to one such ‘information packet’ obtained by the American Trucking Associations, [the Rhode Island Department of Transportation] intends to prevent diversion of tractor-semitrailers to potential alternative routes through signage limiting truck access to ‘local services,’ along with a variety of state and local enforcement methods,” ATA said in a letter dated Sept. 29. “From the limited information available, ATA has serious concerns as to how the contemplated restrictions can be reasonably enforced without imposing an unreasonable burden on motor carriers and their customers, truck drivers, other motorists and the citizens of Rhode Island.”
   “We have said from the beginning that the governor and politicians in Providence are attempting to extort revenue from our industry – using the trucks that deliver their state’s goods as a piggy bank to avoid making the tough choices that are necessary to maintain the state’s roads and bridges,” said current ATA President and CEO Chris Spear. “We will continue to fight these discriminatory and unjust tolls and as other states have learned, we will not stop until this plan is abandoned.”
   “This plan is bad for our industry, but it is also bad for Rhode Islanders who will see costs and congestion rise as a result,” added RITA President Chris Maxwell. “The only beneficiaries of Gov. Raimondo’s plan are her cronies and politicians in Providence who get to once again kick the can down the road when it comes to a real, sustainable highway funding solution.”
   The tolling plan was authorized by the Rhode Island General Assembly through the passage of the Rhode Island Bridge Replacement, Reconstruction and Maintenance Fund Act, or RhodeWorks, which was signed into law on Feb. 11. Through RhodeWorks, RIDOT is authorized to toll large commercial trucks to fund, in part, the replacement or reconstruction of the bridges throughout the state.
   “RhodeWorks assesses tolls on tractor trailers to account for the disproportionately large amount of damage they cause relative to cars and other trucks,” the governor’s office said, further citing a Government Accountability Office report noting that one fully loaded tractor trailer can do the equivalent damage of 9,600 cars.
   RIDOT will solicit proposals from qualified firms to design, build, operate and maintain the bridge tolling system. It expects to issue the request for proposals by late November. RIDOT’s 10-year plan anticipates revenues from truck tolls beginning in 2018.
   According to the plan, RhodeWorks’ revenues will be used to fix more than 150 structurally deficient bridges and make repairs to another 500 bridges to prevent them from becoming deficient, enabling the state to bring 90 percent of its bridges up to federal standards by 2024.