The Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) will begin collecting tolls from truckers at multiple new locations in the next year as part of their controversial truck-only tolling program.
There are currently only two truck-only toll gantries operating in Rhode Island, but that will change starting in July, according to reporting from WPRI.
On July 31, a new toll gantry located on Route 6 at the Woonasquatucket River Bridge will go live and start collecting tolls from truckers.
Following the opening of the third toll gantry, RIDOT plans to open another truck-only tolling gantry roughly every month until April 2020.
*Gantry #4 located on Route 146 at Route 116 is set to go live on August 14, 2019.
*Gantry #5 also located on Route 146 at Scott/Leigh Road is scheduled to open on September 25, 2019.
*Gantry #6 on I-95 at Roosevelt will go live on October 30, 2019.
*Gantry #7 on I-295 at Greenville Avenue is slated to go live November 11, 2019.
*Gantry #8 also on I-295 at Plainfield Pike is set to launch on December 6, 2019.
*Gantry #9 on I-95 at Centerville will open on December 19, 2019.
*Gantry #10 on I-95 at Oxford will go live January 13, 2020.
*Gantry #11 on Route 146 at Farnum is slated to open for business on March 12, 2020.
*Finally, Gantry #12 on I-195 at Washington will open on April 13, 2020.
The two currently operating toll gantries are located on I-95 between Hopkinton and Exeter.
RIDOT says that the cost of tolls will vary: “The toll rates will vary from site to site, ranging from $2.00 to $9.50. The median cost is $3.50. For RFID (i.e. E-ZPass) equipped tractor trailers, tolls are limited to once per day, per direction and there is a cap of $20 for a through-trip on I-95 as well as a daily cap of $40 per day no matter how many tolls a tractor trailer goes through.”
The truck-only tolls are part of Democratic Governor Gina Raimondo’s 2016 infrastructure funding plan, which has come under harsh criticism from the trucking industry. Raimondo says that tolling only Class 8 or higher vehicles is fair because they cause the most damage to roads and bridges.
In March 2019, a federal judge dismissed an American Trucking Associations (ATA) lawsuit that argued that the truck-only tolls were unconstitutional.
In a 2016 survey by OOIDA, 79% of respondents said that they would choose to avoid Rhode Island completely rather than pay the truck-only tolls.
For more information on RIDOT’s truck-only tolling, click here.