Both sides in truck toll debate sharpen rhetoric with vote near

PROVIDENCE (AP) — A plan to charge big- rig trucks using Rhode Island highways is barreling through the state’s General Assembly as top lawmakers push for swift passage of legislation that stalled last year.

Democratic House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello called on lawmakers this week to “stop listening to the loud minority voices” decrying tolls that would raise money for a 10-year project to repair deteriorating bridges.

The tolls would charge tractor-trailers $20 to cross through the state along Interstate 95, the East Coast’s most important highway corridor.

Rhode Island would become the only state to create a truck-only tolling system, though many East Coast states have tolls that make commercial trucks pay higher rates.

Peter Alviti, the state’s transportation director, appealed to lawmakers to reverse a long history of decay and poor planning that has left Rhode Island with “the worst bridges in America.”

Alviti spoke at hearings in the state Senate and House on Wednesday and Thursday that also fielded hours of fervent public testimony and some calls to slow down the process. A revised plan unveiled last week by Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo and legislative leaders is moving to a full vote in both chambers next week.

Opponents include shipping giant UPS and Massachusetts- based convenience store chain Cumberland Farms, which sent a sharply worded letter declaring the proposed tolls inequitable and misguided.

Joseph B. Nadeau photo A truck with a lit sign supporting Gov. Gina Raimondo’s proposed road improvement plan, which includes truck tolls, is parked outside the Statehouse during General Assembly hearings on the bills Wednesday evening.