New Hampshire Drops Plans to Toll I-93
New Hampshire transportation officials will not to ask the federal government for permission to toll 20 miles of Interstate 93 from the Massachusetts state line to Manchester.
Transportation Commissioner George Campbell said last month that the state would petition to be part of a Federal Highway Administration pilot program under which three states will be allowed to toll interstates running through them.
At the time he said the state needed the tolls to raise $250 million more to pay for an $800 million rebuilding project already under way on I-93.
But in a recent letter to Gov. John H. Lynch (D), Campbell said research by his department had determined that tolling I-93 presented problems that could not be overcome.
When Campbell first said announced he wanted to toll a section of the interstate, lawmakers in New Hampshire and Massachusetts formed a coalition against tolling.
Pennsylvania is the only state left vying for the third spot in the federal pilot program. Virginia has been approved for tolls on I-81 and Missouri for tolls on I-70.
Pennsylvania’s first application to toll I-80 was rejected in late 2008 but the state reapplied in November.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood recently said that the federal government will decide soon whether Pennsylvania will be approved for the pilot program.
