by Tara Granahan, WPRO

After examining RI Department of Transportation documents, WPRO’s Tara Granahan has found that completion of construction of the controversial toll gantries, an integral part of Gov. Gina Raimondo’s “RhodeWorks” plan, could take up to three years…or more.  This comes just weeks after DOT Director Peter Alviti said the bidding process for several consultants for work such as building sign gantries and a toll facility, and to study traffic patterns, would take 18 months to two years.

After examining the documents, former gubernatorial candidate Ken Block agreed, saying “the DOT is envisioning a 3-year window for the design, construction, and roll-out of the gantries.”

The head of the Rhode Island Trucking Association, Chris Maxwell, told Granahan that while he expects the law to fall apart under scrutiny, legal action can’t take place until the gantries are up-and-running.  Maxwell told Granahan, “we looked at a year to 18 months as far as the roll-out, and because obviously we as an association with the ATA, as an industry, are looking at the window of how quickly we can take legal action.  That would probably be day one of the first toll being assessed to the trucks.”

Rep. Patricia Morgan, (R) Coventry, who fought the truck tolls and created an alternative plan with the RIGOP policy group, also questioned the timing as far as when the state starts to borrow the money through bonds.  “It appears that the governor could put out these bonds,” says Morgan, “and then encumber the taxpayers for all of that money .”  Rep. Morgan said the taxpayers of Rhode Island could be “on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars.”  Granahan also noted that Raimondo’s first term as governor could be over by the time the gantries are erected.

Check out the RIDOT request for proposal HERE.

Listen to Tara Granahan’s conversations with Block, Morgan, and Maxwell below: