DOT report: Connecticut can gain $1B annually with tolls

Connecticut could generate approximately $1 billion per year if all-electronic tolling was installed on the state”™s highways, according to a new report issued by the Department of Transportation (DOT).

The report, which is separate from a $10 million study on tolls commissioned by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, used a scenario with a baseline toll rate of 4.4 cents per mile (off-peak)

for passenger cars equipped with a Connecticut E-ZPass; motorists reaching a threshold for volume discounts were charged 3.5 cents per mile in the analysis. As a  result, the DOT estimated that a 12-mile toll trip within the state would cost drivers 42 cents during off-peak and 53 cents during peak hours. The report also stressed that Connecticut would have the lowest toll rates in New England if this scenario came into existence.

The DOT also noted that adding a tolling system would cost the state $372 million, with $210 million for installing the infrastructure and $162 million for creating a fiber communications system.

“The report we are releasing today is designed to inform a dialogue among our elected leaders and the citizens of Connecticut about the potential for instituting tolls in the state,” DOT Commissioner James P. Redeker said. “Governor Malloy”™s Transportation Finance Panel concluded that current revenues are insufficient to maintain our roads and bridges or to remove traffic bottlenecks and reduce congestion and recommended tolls as one way of generating new revenue.”

Gov.-elect Ned Lamont campaigned on limited tolling aimed at tractor-trailers and not on personal vehicles traveling on Connecticut highways. The DOT report focused on both trucks and personal vehicles, with more than one-quarter of the revenue coming from trucks.