One of the more interesting ideas in Governor Chafee’s first budget was RIDOT’s proposal to add tolls to I-95 – though it wasn’t necessarily a surprise, considering Rhode Island’s long-running struggle to find enough money to pay for transportation costs.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood was less than enthusiastic about the idea when we interviewed him last spring. But RIDOT’s Mike Lewis wasn’t dissuaded, saying Rhode Island might be able to get one of a small number of exemptions from the rules that don’t allow states to toll existing federally funded roads.

Now tolls on I-95 are one step closer to becoming a reality in Rhode Island, Tim White and I report in a new WPRI.com story:

The Chafee administration has asked for permission to start charging drivers a toll on Interstate 95 near the Connecticut border, the Target 12 Investigators have learned.

The R.I. Department of Transportation filed an application in June asking the federal government to approve the installation of tollbooths between Exits 1 and 2 on both sides of I-95 in Hopkinton. No tolls are proposed at the Massachusetts border.

“The proposed location is considered the most feasible location to prevent toll avoidance and to gain public acceptance,” RIDOT said in the application, which Target 12 obtained this week. The documents don’t say how much the toll would be.

RIDOT said money is needed to pay for two large projects – replacing the decaying Providence Viaduct bridge that carries I-95 next to Providence Place mall and rebuilding the I-95/Route 4 interchange near Quonset Business Park – as well as ongoing maintenance projects along the 67 miles of I-95 and I-295 in Rhode Island.

Gov. Lincoln Chafee, House Speaker Gordon Fox and Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed all signed a letter on June 15 supporting the proposal to put on toll plazas the state’s main roadway.

Click here for the full article, which has much more, including Governor Chafee’s take and details on the state’s case for allowing tolls. The map at right is part of in the application.

Also, props to national outlets Stateline and The Huffington Post for their informative coverage of the proposal.

(map: R.I. Department of Transportation)

Nesi’s Nightcap will return on Thursday.

When Tim White interviewed U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood last month, President Obama’s transit chief appeared to pour cold water on the Chafee administration’s proposal to put new tolls on I-95 to fund repairs.

“If a state or a governor or DOT wants to add capacity or two lanes on each side, we think that’s a good use of tolls and we have supported that kind of approach,” LaHood told Tim.

But Chafee’s transportation director, Mike Lewis, still sounded optimistic about the potential for tolls on “Newsmakers” last week, because he said adding capacity doesn’t necessarily require adding lanes – you could also change the engineering of on- and off-ramps, for example, on the I-95 bridge next to Providence Place.

Today Stateline’s Daniel Vock followed up on our stories with a closer look at the issue. After declaring that I-95 “is falling apart” in Rhode Island, Vock describes a way the state could get around the general ban on tolling roads paid for with federal tax dollars:

In 1998, Congress created a pilot program under which up to three states can start collecting tolls on existing interstates to fund improvements on those roads. So far, though, no states have used it.

Virginia and Missouri both have federal permission to move ahead with the idea, but neither has the tolls up and running. …

Pennsylvania also applied for the exception, in order to put tolls on Interstate 80 across the northern stretch of the state. The federal government rejected that plan, largely because it would have diverted some of the toll revenue from the highway to support public transit in Philadelphia. …

Rhode Island hopes to qualify for the spot left open when Pennsylvania’s application failed. Lewis, the transportation director, says Rhode Island officials learned from Pennsylvania’s experience. Under the plan they are now developing, tolls collected on I-95 would go only toward improvements to the interstate itself.

Even if everything went the way Lewis wants, Vick reports, the toll booths wouldn’t open for at least another two years. Interesting nonetheless. And thank you to the Nesi’s Notes reader who sent the article along.

(photo: RITBA)

Tim White landed an exclusive interview on Tuesday with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood – as well as Senators Reed and Whitehouse – to discuss Rhode Island’s new $28 million in rail funding.

But the real news was what LaHood had to say about Governor Chafee’s proposal to put tolls on Interstate 95:

President Obama’s transportation secretary is throwing cold water on Gov. Lincoln Chafee’s proposal to put tolls on I-95 as a way of paying for road repairs.

“If a state or a governor or DOT wants to add capacity or two lanes on each side, we think that’s a good use of tolls and we have supported that kind of approach,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Tuesday in an exclusive interview with WPRI 12.

“We don’t support the kind of approach, though, for roads that have already been built with taxpayer dollars then to be tolled,” LaHood said.

Chafee’s budget proposal for 2011-12 calls for a study to examine the possibility of adding tolls to Rhode Island highways, including I-95, to pay for a backlog of infrastructure projects, not additional lanes.

A spokesman for the governor was not immediately available for comment.

Read the rest of Tim’s story here. We’ve also posted the full 13-minute interview with the trio about transit in Rhode Island.

While it’s possible there’s some sort of wiggle room in LaHood’s statement about “adding capacity,” it seemed clear to me he was not in favor of tolls that pay for infrastructure repairs.