R.I. bridge upkeep taking its toll

CROSSING THE BRIDGE: Tolls for certain kinds of vehicles, including smaller trucks and tractor trailers, could rise for the Claiborne Pell Bridge if a toll is not adopted for the Sakonnet River Bridge. / PBN PHOTO/BRIAN MCDONALD
CROSSING THE BRIDGE: Tolls for certain kinds of vehicles, including smaller trucks and tractor trailers, could rise for the Claiborne Pell Bridge if a toll is not adopted for the Sakonnet River Bridge. / PBN PHOTO/BRIAN MCDONALD

The Claiborne Pell Bridge entrance ramp lands a few yards from McGrath Clambakes and Catering’s Newport headquarters, giving the business rapid access to the mainland and the ability to operate competitively throughout the state.
But getting on and off Aquidneck Island is more expensive than it used to be, and new toll proposals for the Pell and two other Newport County bridges are raising concerns that the cost of doing business on the island could soon resemble more remote islands.
“Every year they are hitting the businesses harder,” McGrath Clambakes owner T.R. McGrath said about toll-increase proposals for the Pell, Mount Hope and Sakonnet River bridges. “I use all three, so no matter which one they choose, I’ll feel it. I don’t think they have found a good solution, and the ones they are talking about scare me.”
It’s a familiar sentiment among businesses on Aquidneck Island, where a series of recent tax proposals aimed at the hospitality industry were extremely unpopular, and the current toll rates for local trucks, even small ones, are several times higher than local passenger vehicles.
“It is inequitable to place the burden entirely on Aquidneck Island businesses,” said Newport County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jody Smith. “It is not only going to increase the cost of materials, but would put local businesses at a competitive disadvantage. It’s already difficult for businesses in Tiverton to compete because the burden is less in Massachusetts.”
Rhode Island’s transportation-funding problems are long-standing, as are debates about using tolls to raise the money needed to solve them.
This year the R.I. Turnpike and Bridge Authority already has voted to raise tolls on the Pell bridge and reinstitute them on the Mount Hope Bridge, and Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee has proposed putting a toll on the replacement for the Sakonnet River Bridge when it opens.
Any toll increase is likely to have an impact on companies that have to pay it, but business leaders say the current proposals, like the last toll increases, disproportionally affect commercial traffic and come at a time when local industries have been hit with a number of new taxes, including the guided-tour tax, hotel tax and proposed 2 percentage-point hike in the meals tax. “The timing of this is about as bad as timing can be,” said Evan Smith, executive director of the Newport and Bristol County Convention and Visitors Bureau. “The travel industry is paying more than our fair share of the burden because the people who visit here don’t vote here. But they can vote by not showing up.”
Of the three Aquidneck Island bridges facing new or higher tolls, the new $180 million Sakonnet River Bridge being built between Tiverton and Portsmouth has become the top focus of state transportation officials and toll-watching locals.
Drivers currently make approximately 15 million trips on the Sakonnet Bridge each year, compared with 10 million trips on the Pell Bridge and 5 million on the Mount Hope Bridge.
That heavier volume makes the Sakonnet more attractive for a toll, because it could generate more revenue with a lower rate than the other bridges.
The Sakonnet bridge is also the only one of the three not owned by the R.I. Turnpike and Bridge Authority, which maintains the Pell and Mount Hope bridges solely from the money collected in tolls on the Pell, the only bridge in the state with an active toll.
Chafee’s proposal would bring the new Sakonnet bridge, once it opens, under the control of the Turnpike and Bridge Authority, which would then have the authority to toll it and use the proceeds to maintain all three Aquidneck Island spans. The Jamestown-Verrazano Bridge would also go under Bridge and Turnpike Authority control, although there are no plans to toll that bridge yet.
Turning the Sakonnet over to the Bridge Authority, which was also proposed by then-Gov. Donald L. Carcieri, is popular because it would spread the burden of paying for the Pell and Mount Hope over a greater number of users. It would also take the responsibility of repairing the Sakonnet away from the R.I. Department of Transportation, which has admitted it has no way to pay for it and failed to maintain the old Sakonnet Bridge. “One of the issues we talk about is when Rhode Islanders travel throughout the country, we get hit with tolls and contribute to the infrastructure of where we pass through,” said Turnpike and Bridge Authority Chairman David Darlington. “The Mount Hope traffic is mostly local, while Sakonnet is mostly out of state. Tolling it has the benefit of reaching travelers who don’t pay for infrastructure through state taxes or gas tax.”
However the same factors that make the Sakonnet attractive to tolls also increase the impact of those new tolls on Aquidneck Island residents and businesses.
Because more truck traffic comes over the Sakonnet than the other bridges and most shipments would not be able to avoid a toll, the cost likely would be passed on in prices for materials, goods and services on the island.
And local businesses and their employees who make frequent trips on and off the island will have to take the less-direct Mount Hope Bridge to avoid the added cost.
“That is going to double the amount of tolls we pay per year,” said Bill Corcoran, owner of Newport Tent Co. in Portsmouth, who has 14 trucks and does 75 percent of his business off the island. “Everyone is going to get hit with increased charges. Everything has to come by truck onto the island through bridges. As a result, there is an incremental cost to everything.”
State transportation officials say that, if a new Sakonnet toll is approved, they would look at charging the current Pell Bridge rate, which was raised in 2009.
The current Pell toll is a modest 83 cents each way for Rhode Island passenger-car, E-ZPass users and $2 per axle each way for all other passenger cars and local trucks heavier than 7,000 pounds.
That means a five-axel tractor trailer already pays $10 each way and medium-sized pickup trucks with trailers like the ones McGrath Clambakes use pay $8 each way.
If the Sakonnet Bridge proposal does not happen, the Turnpike and Bridge Authority has already approved a toll increase that would raise the Pell tolls to $5 each way for smaller trucks and as much as $12.50 for tractor trailers. Transportation officials acknowledge that the burden on Aquidneck Island bridge users will be high, but say that tolls are the only practical way to pay for the expensive upkeep of the bridges in the current fiscal climate.
The Department of Transportation, which maintains the state’s highways and bridges other than the Pell and Mount Hope, is running an annual structural deficit of at least $285 million.
State Transportation Director Michael Lewis points out that, unlike tolls, much of his agency’s resources can be siphoned off for things like public transportation.
That’s part of the reason the Pell and Mount Hope bridges are in solid condition while smaller DOT-owned spans like the old Sakonnet Bridge, I-95 Pawtucket Bridge, and Providence Viaduct have all fallen apart.
On the equity of tolling one region of the state and not the rest, Lewis notes the state has been pushing a toll on Interstate 95 between exits 2 and 3 to pay for the large Providence-area infrastructure.
Those tolls still lack federal approval, and Rhode Island is competing with North Carolina, Arizona and Wisconsin for one slot to toll an interstate. The state is also looking at alternative means of putting tolls on I-95, like buying back part of the highway, Lewis said.
While the state waits on the I-95 issue, debate on the future of the new Sakonnet bridge has shifted to the General Assembly, where lawmakers already have started talking about the proposal to transfer it to the Turnpike and Bridge Authority.
The Authority also has asked the General Assembly to allow it to raise tolls on the Mount Hope Bridge above their now-capped 1960 rate, which is so low they stopped collecting it.
Rep. Richard P. Morrison, D-Bristol, has responded to the toll requests with a bill that seeks to dissolve the Authority, moving its duties to the transportation department.
If the Authority takes over the Sakonnet and can toll it, the Pell toll hike and Mount Hope request will be revoked, Darlington said. •

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