Here’s How Much Tolls Will Cost You In Lamont’s Latest Plan

HARTFORD, CT — The state Department of Transportation has provided a more detailed breakdown on how much trucks and cars both in and out-of-state would pay for tolls under a recent proposal. The fate of tolls in Connecticut remains up in the air. It would require a special session vote later this year.

Republican legislators have remained steadfastly opposed to any tolls in the state, citing distrust of how the money would be spent.

Gov. Ned Lamont has said that the state’s constitutional transportation lockbox and federal rules would prevent money from going to non-transportation costs. He recently offered a proposal to cut the income tax in order to take some of the sting out of toll costs for state residents.

Lamont’s administration also laid out a potentially dire situation where the federal government could get to call more shots about how money is spent if federal highways get in worse shape. The goal is to get $800 million in toll revenue annually.

The latest proposals call for about 50 toll gantries total on I-95, I-84, I-91 and route 15. A large number is required due to the state having many exits. I-95 between New York and New Haven has 47 exits for 47 miles of road compared to the Mass Pike which has 21 exits on 133 miles of road.

Related: New Tolls Proposal Pitched By Lamont

The rate for heavy trucks would be four times the car rate and the peak period would be 25 percent more than off-peak.

The maximum discount would include 30 percent for a Connecticut EZPass and 20 percent for a frequent commuter. The lowest rate would be those discounts off-peak at 3.5 cents per mile. The peak rate would be 4.4 cents per mile.

Toll rates with discounts would be less than half for the New Jersey Turnpike and be in line with Mass Turnpike rates, which don’t have congestion pricing.

In-state cars would contribute about 41.2 percent of the revenue while in-state trucks would contribute 16.2 percent, out-of-state trucks 15 percent and out-of-state cars 27.6 percent.

Toll money has to go to the highway where it was collected under federal rules. So money collected on I-95 would have to be used for improvements on I-95. Only once the highway is fully in a good state of repair could extra money go to other highway projects, but that would be far down the line.

The DOT is pitching several projects that could benefit from increased transportation revenue.

A slew of I-95 congestion and reconstruction projects have been pitched including adding a second northbound lane at exit 27A to Route 8 and a six-mile northbound lane between exit 19 and 27A. Removing the Bridgeport bottleneck could save northbound commuters 22 minutes between the state line and Bridgeport, according to DOT estimates.

Another proposal is to add another southbound lane from exit 7 to the New York State line in Greenwich.

A number of Route 15 proposals have also been made including reconstructing or replacing Heroes Tunnel near the New Haven/Hamden line and improving the interchange in Norwalk with Route 7.

In eastern Connecticut proposals call for reconstructing the Goldstar Bridge in New London among others.

I-84 proposals include fixing the Waterbury Mixmaster and the Hartford viaduct replacement. Improvements on I-91 include a new interchange at exit 29 to Charter Oak Bridge and a new I-84/I-91 interchange over the Connecticut River.