Toll booths

[g-man430]

I was just thinking why doesn't the SCDOT stick toll booths on all of the interstates here like they do in Florida to pay for the widening and paving of them. Some of the money could even go to mass transit. They do it on the southern connector/I-185 in Greenville. The only reason that doesn't have much traffic is because it hasn't developed yet. Just go down to Orlando, FL where they have toll booths on the interstate and look at all of the traffic that's on it. I read an article where the SCDOT is going to start putting in toll booths on I-95 beginning in 2008. Do you think it will happen on I-85, I-20, I-26, and maybe even some others in the near future?

[Greenville]

I was just thinking why doesn't the SCDOT stick toll booths on all of the interstates here like they do in Florida to pay for the widening and paving of them. Some of the money could even go to mass transit. They do it on the southern connector/I-185 in Greenville. The only reason that doesn't have much traffic is because it hasn't developed yet. Just go down to Orlando, FL where they have toll booths on the interstate and look at all of the traffic that's on it. I read an article where the SCDOT is going to start putting in toll booths on I-95 beginning in 2008. Do you think it will happen on I-85, I-20, I-26, and maybe even some others in the near future?

[Spartan]

I say toll everything or make the gas tax enough to actually cover the costs of maintaining the roads instead of filling pot holes.

[monsoon]

The quick answer to the original question is that highways built using federal highway trust fund money, with very few exceptions related to new construction, are prohibited from being turned into toll roads. The only way that SC could have toll roads in the state would be to use it to speed up new construction and where the state and federal highway gas tax wasn't used to fund construction. This very thing is happening in NC where the state created the NC Turnpike Authority to build certain roads. Part of I-540 around Raleigh will be their first project, and there are others planned around Charlotte. There is a study plan in process to re-built the very dangerous and over loaded bridge where I-85 crosses the Yadkin river by using tolls.

[g-man430]

^^^What about I-95? That is going to start being tolled in 2009: http://tollroadsnews.info/artman/publish/article_1344.shtml

[monsoon]

^^^What about I-95? That is going to start being tolled in 2009: http://tollroadsnews.info/artman/publish/article_1344.shtml

[cowboy_wilhelm]

Aren't they also looking at constructing I-73 to Myrtle Beach as a tolled facility? North Carolina is looking at the same for I-74 in Brunswick County near Wilmington. N.C. Turnpike Authority

[g-man430]

^^^Yes. I-73 will be a toll road.

[goodbye]

I say ... make the gas tax enough to actually cover the costs of maintaining the roads instead of filling pot holes.

[g-man430]

Why doesn't South Carolina raise the gas tax? Are they just retarted in the head or something?

[Spartan]

Pretty much.