Bill Could Add Tolls To New N.C. Highways

The bill prohibits adding tolls to roads already built but allows tolls to be placed on specially designated new roads.

Nine members will be appointed to the N.C. Turnpike Authority, and members will select a chairman from among themselves.

The Senate president pro tem and the House speaker will each appoint two members, and Gov. Mike Easley will appoint four. N.C. Secretary of Transportation Lyndo Tippett will be the ninth member.

Under the law, three potential areas will be studied and roads will be constructed based on those studies.

Three preliminary studies also would be undertaken to examine the feasibility of construction in other areas.

The bill states that one project must be in a county with 650,000 people or more and another has to be in one or more counties with less than 650,000 people.

The N.C. Department of Transportation will use its resources to help construct the roads.

Although Cole said it is too early to make definite predictions, he said the first prospect for a toll road could be a strip of Interstate-85 going southeast across the Catawba River.

The toll road would stretch from Gastonia to I-485, Charlotte's Outerbelt, Cole said.

David King, N.C. Department of Transportation deputy secretary for transit, said the area is a prime candidate because of traffic congestion on the road.

King said funding would come from a mixture of state revenue and government bonds.

The turnpike authority will be able to issue government bonds to creditors, but the projects must first receive credit approval.

Revenues from the toll roads would be used to repay the bond.

Other states across the nation have tried toll roads with mixed results.

To be successful, the demand for toll roads must be high enough to support funding for the project, King said.

He said the state would employ new payment methods, such a card with a magnetic strip that can be read as cars drive through toll booths.

The card would make transactions quicker and keep traffic flowing, King said.

Residents would have the option to buy an account with the authority.

Revenue raised from the tolls is restricted to turnpike projects, but Rep. Nelson Cole, D-Alamance, co-chairman of the House Appropriations Transportation Committee, said tolls should reduce funds allocated for highways.

Cole said that N.C. traffic rates grow at three times the rate of population growth and that the toll roads are needed to support the state's population, which will double by 2020.

"It is designed to keep traffic moving fast and also (to) mitigate air pollution." he said.

The State & National Editor can be reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.