PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Republicans and the American Trucking Association are calling on Rhode Island leaders to repeal a law passed last year that allows the state to install highway tolls on big-rig trucks.
House Minority Leader Patricia Morgan held a news conference Tuesday with fellow Republican legislators and trucker advocates calling for repeal of the toll-financed plan to repair the state’s bridges.
They say they’ve studied how the tolls would work and it doesn’t add up.
Rhode Island Trucking Association President Chris Maxwell is also questioning whether the funding is actually needed. Maxwell says inspection reports show one pending project, a replacement of Interstate 95’s Oxford Street crossing in Providence, is unnecessary because the 1963-built bridge is structurally sound.
The state Department of Transportation didn’t immediately return requests for comment about the claims.
