Work to add the first tolls to a Hampton Roads interstate since 1996 is now underway. The Virginia Department of Transportation has begun installation of the gantries that will hold the automated toll collecting scanners on the west side of the Downtown Tunnel. The construction is not expected to impede traffic.
The tolls, which will pay for a major expansion of the Midtown Tunnel and improvements of the Downtown, were to take effect later this year. But, because of a massive outcry after the state's deal with Elizabeth River Crossings was announced, lawmakers agreed to push the start of tolls back two years to 2014.
By the way, if local politicians were caught off guard by the tunnel toll deal, they shouldn't have been. In an interview on my public affairs show 15 months ago, VDOT official Stephany Hanshaw told me the Midtown Tunnel agreement, complete with tolls, was pretty much a done deal.
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