DOT Dir. doesn’t anticipate toll changes despite President’s budget plan

Rhode Island DOT Director Peter Alviti calls Rhode Island a model for the way it is going about implementing tolling of commercial trucks.

He says the plan is for gantries to be up and running in the Ocean State in December.

"More and more states will be doing this,” said Alviti.

To the naysayers, the Director does point to the fact that the Trump administration is trying to loosen federal regulations on tolling.

"The president’s recent budget request includes a provision to relax the restrictions on tolling down the interstate,” said Alviti.

Despite that fact though, Alviti says there are no plans to expand tolling.

"I see no reason to extend beyond the program that we have,” said Alviti.

It was just two days ago that House Republicans joined members of the trucking industry in an effort to repeal the state law allowing tolling.

"It is unbelievably irresponsible to continue down this path,” said Minority Leader Patricia Morgan on Tuesday.

While Minority leader Morgan says there are all sorts of ways to avoid it, Alviti says it is necessary because of the wear and tear the truckers cause.

"While they cause 80 percent of the damage they’ve only been paying 20 percent of the bill to make repairs to our infrastructure. We are looking to bring equity into that,” said Alviti.

The President of the Rhode Island Trucking Association Chris Maxwell issuing this statement to ABC 6 on the President’s proposal; "While ATA and RITA are encouraged by the apparent focus on infrastructure investment in this budget, an investment we strongly support and look forward to helping the administration and congress shape, we are deeply concerned by the proposal to loosen the restrictions on interstate tolling. In addition to being inefficient and unsafe, tolling has proven to be deeply unpopular, with states like North Carolina and Virginia abandoning interstate tolling projects. Quite simply, time and time again, proposals to use tolls to fund highways have failed. We encourage the Trump administration and congress to follow their example and look for more efficient and sustainable funding mechanisms for this investment package. If enacted, however, the President’s proposal shouldn’t impact RhodeWorks since the latter is designed around preexisting authority. Were federal law change to allow states greater flexibility to toll existing interstates, RIDOT would likely have to go back to the legislature to amend the RhodeWorks law to take advantage of any new federal authority."

(C) WLNE 2017