Maryland drivers will be coughing up more cash to cross the state’s bridges and tunnels starting Tuesday. Drivers will pay $4 instead of $2.50 to cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, $4 instead of $3 to cross the Harry W. Nice Bridge (U.S. 301) and $3 instead of $2 to cross the Baltimore Harbor via the Fort McHenry Tunnel, Baltimore Harbor Tunnel or Francis Scott Key Bridge — among other increases.
The toll increases are expected to raise $90 million in their first year and will pay for patching up Maryland’s aging infrastructure, state officials say. They argue the increases are badly needed, since tolls haven’t been raised since the 1980s.
The tolls will rise again in 2013, when the price for the Bay Bridge will increase to $6 for cars and as much as $45 for large semi-trucks.
The statewide increases were approved in September after a lengthy public comment period that forced state officials to reduce the planned increases — the state earlier proposed that the Bay Bridge charge $8 per trip by 2013.
The toll increases also come with new fines for drivers who miss the tolling plazas and who don’t have EZ-Passes. Drivers on the Intercounty Connector without EZ-Passes will pay 150 percent of the toll rate, at a maximum fine of $15, instead of the previous $3 ticket fee that was added to the missed tolls. The ICC is the state’s only toll road without toll takers to collect the fees.
Critics of the toll increases say the money will be used to pay off debt on the multibillion-dollar Intercounty Connector, rather than repair bridges.
“The bottom line is the ICC is cratering their finances, and that’s been pretty well known for a while. A significant portion of this toll increase has to be attributed to the ICC,” said Greg Smith, who studies the highway for the nonprofit watchdog Community Research.
Northern Virginia is facing its own set of toll increases. Starting Jan. 1, the Dulles Greenway will cost as much as $4.80, up from the peak price of $4.50 now. Also starting at the beginning of next year, the Dulles Toll Road price will climb another 25 cents, as it has done the past two years, to $1.50 each way.
