Posted on 07/15/2017 9:03:53 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
RICHMOND, Va. -- When it comes to street parties, perhaps never has there been one in RVA like the day the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike opened on June 30, 1958.
There were "antique cars, pretty girls, champagne" according to newspaper reports at the time. Huge crowds turned out, even though the road cost numerous citizens - many of them poorer African-Americans - their homes during the two years of heavy construction.
The $103 million marvel meant no more winding down busy Route 1 (Jefferson-Davis Highway) through the guts of the city. And Richmond and Petersburg were among the very first cities to build our share of what would become the nation's interstate system.
The first person to pay the toll waited hours for the honor and the photo-op.
But the joy of paying faded as the tolls kept being collected long after they were supposed to stop in 1986.
And it wasn't just the money, recalled former state delegate Jay DeBoer (Petersburg), who battled for a decade to get the turnpike authority to honor the initial deal to remove the tolls once the cost of the turnpike was met.
The tolls created nightmarish traffic and many crashes, some of them deadly, DeBoer said.
During the first year of the tolls, 18.4 million drivers paid up. The last year they were in operation there were almost 10 times as many users - 115 million.
And DeBoer believed the tolls were an unfair burden to the citizens of Petersburg.
"The original agreement had been extended once," said DeBoer, now the director of the state's Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation. "And you could argue that extending the tolls to make the road bigger and better is a fair deal to those who are paying the tolls. But extending the tolls to pay for unrelated projects - that is a breach of faith."
The new expiration of the tolls was set for June 30, 1992. As the deadline approached DeBoer found language at the bottom of a long bill that would allow the tolls to continue in perpetuity and managed to stop it.
There was a much smaller party of sorts when the last toll was paid late at night 25 years ago.
It was at the Falling Creek on-ramp and the state Commissioner of Transportation was symbolically serving as a toll-taker, handing out commemorative coins for the newsworthy occasion.
There was DeBoer in his wife's red convertible with an anti-toll sign on the side, one of the very last to pay the toll. For dramatic effect, DeBoer made the commissioner change a $20 bill, he recalled with a laugh.
"We were fairly loud about it," he said. "Looking back, that was pretty immature. But I got to say, it was a lot of fun."
During the 34 years of tolls, the turnpike authority collected $550 million from drivers. One of the biggest expenses - $233 million - occurred while tearing down the toll booths and plazas.
So nearly half of all those quarters, nickels, dimes and pennies thrown into the toll baskets for all those years went to making them go away.
Pictures in original.
During the 34 years of tolls, the turnpike authority collected $550 million from drivers. One of the biggest expenses - $233 million - occurred while tearing down the toll booths and plazas.
I know with inflation, it can be hard to compare amounts paid over a period of decades with today’s buying power of the dollar.
But still, how much did the toll collections really benefit people in Virginia, if it cost so much to end the practice of toll collections?
And the tolls were collected by people, I assume, toll collectors in booths, as this was before we saw EZ Pass type systems in place to collect tolls on toll roads.
So were people paying the toll just to pay the salary of the person who collected the toll???? Was it like a racket in that regard, as opposed to collecting money to fund significant road repair??
And don’t we already pay gas taxes for road repair and maintenance???
I have relatives in upstate NY. I’ve never driven the Thruway personally. But they tell me that there is a lot of “deferred maintenance” shall we say, on the Thruway, which is part of the justification for continuing the tolls.
But then, if the road is in such bad repair, is the toll money really being used for repair and maintenance??
I remember the crazy log jams at the toll booths on that stretch of I95. Hard to believe they have been gone for such a long time.
Tolls were taken off the old Dallas - Fort Worth Turnpike, but I’m sure the original Dallas North Tollway has paid for itself many times over. They keep extending it. (What was intended to get the rich folks to work downtown now has frontage roads reaching half way to the Oklahoma line).
The major north/south artery on the East Coast and 95 only has three lanes each way with 2 exorbitantly expensive bidirectional toll lanes in the middle. Those toll lanes are a public/private partnership which will always be used to limit any expansion of the regular lanes.
The crooked governor and Northern VA liberals have another grand plan to make toll lanes out of existing lanes on I-66, the other major VA artery into D.C. A total disaster.
I live in NoVa and I take the train into work in DC, VRE and Amtrak. Best way to commute. Widening 95 and 66 won’t help, not at the rate the area is growing. Stafford co just released a study saying their population will increase by another 1/3rd in 20 years. Look up “induced demand”, expanding the roads is an expensive bandaid solution that will only hurt us down the road.
Ah, the Tappan Zee Bridge. My sister-in-law from Rhode ISland calls it “The Best Thing About New York City”!
(Bypass the whole place!)
Ain’t I-81 wonderful!
I remember vaguely the Dallas / Fort Worth Turnpike when we would go to Six Flags. I also remember when the Hardy Toll Road opened in 1988 when we moved to The Woodlands. Don’t tell me that road ain’t paid for after 30 years. It is just a tax on people who commute in from Montgomery County. We now have a toll road in Tyler of all places.
The problem with the Hardy toll road was that it didn’t go anywhere. It dead ends at 610 instead of going downtown. At the other end it creates a traffic jam well short of the Woodlands.
Run it from the Woodlands to downtown, and folks would at least use it to go to the airport. And it would probably take some of the load off of 45. I used to have to run from the Metroplex to Houston with some frequency, and 45 was always a mess. Maybe it has gotten better; now I usually bail at the Sam Houston Interstate Tollway.
The problem with the Hardy toll road was that it didn’t go anywhere. It dead ends at 610 instead of going downtown. At the other end it creates a traffic jam well short of the Woodlands.
Run it from the Woodlands to downtown, and folks would at least use it to go to the airport. And it would probably take some of the load off of 45. I used to have to run from the Metroplex to Houston with some frequency, and 45 was always a mess. Maybe it has gotten better; now I usually bail at the Sam Houston Interstate Tollway.
The reason I can’t agree with the induced demand concept in Stafford is that Stafford is a massive choke point. That choke point used to be in Dumfries before the HOT extension. When Stafford increases by another third, you won’t be able to drive anywhere.
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