The Rhode Island General Assembly has passed a bill to delay the date on which the tolls on the Sakonnet Bridge were due to rise for cars and trucks.
The House and Senate voted March 20 to delay the increase date from April 1 to May 15. The bill will go to Gov. Lincoln Chafee (D) for his signature.
The toll for cars and trucks is 10 cents per crossing but will increase to 50 cents for cars. A vehicle with three or more axels will have to pay $1.88 per axel regardless of whether it has an E-Z Pass.
Tolling on the Sakonnet has been the subject of a yearlong controversy tied to a larger debate on how to raise revenue for transportation and who should pay.
Commuters who live on the far side of the bridge that connects the mainland to Aquidneck Island, home to Portsmouth and Newport, have fiercely opposed the state’s effort to toll the bridge. Their state representatives have blocked previous tolling bills.
The trucking industry is sympathetic to those who feel they’re being forced to pay tolls that will help support projects in other parts of the state, said Christopher Maxwell, president of the Rhode Island Trucking Association.
“But from an infrastructure standpoint, we have over 100 structurally deficient bridges. We’re kind of between a rock and a hard place.”
