North Carolina businesses along I-95 tally tolling impact

By EMERY P. DALESIO The Associated Press 3/12/2012 RALEIGH, N.C. Plans to charge a fee on Interstate 95 in North Carolina will make it more difficult for businesses to quickly and cheaply ship goods up and down a East Coast's chief thoroughfare, critics say. North Carolina, Virginia and Missouri all are considering tolls as a way to pay for expanding and upgrading interstates. Supporters say drivers from other states will pay much of a costs. But like most highways, I-95 is itself a hub of businesses drawn to a asphalt link to markets from Maine to Florida. Food Lion, Wal-Mart, and Lowe's are some of a companies with North Carolina distribution centers, each employing hundreds of workers, near a highway. The world's largest hog slaughterhouse operated by Smithfield Foods and one of a nation's largest food-service distributors for restaurant chains built near a interstate. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ADVERTISEMENT THE RECENT INCREASE IN FREIGHT VOLUME MEANS NEW JOB OPPORTUNITIES ON GOTRUCKERS.COM. CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ "There's nothing really good for my business that can come out of this. I'm highly dependent upon widespread travel and commerce to make my business successful," said Ernie Brame, who manages one of a highway's largest truck stops in Kenly. The always-open Kenly 95 Petro plaza employs about 170 people at its truck repair shop, fuel center and three restaurants. Under a current proposal, cars would be charged $19.20 for using a interstate's entire 182-mile length through North Carolina. If projections that trucks will be charged nearly three times that hold true, Doug Taylor said that could increase costs for his trucking business by $600,000 to $2 mi! llion a year. "We couldn't eat that," said Taylor, president and CEO of Taylor Express Inc. in Fayetteville, which employs about 300. He said he would have to pass a costs along to his customers, primarily tire manufacturers in a Midwest and South where his trucks deliver commodity ingredients. The home-improvement warehouse retailer Lowe's Cos. says highway tolls might eventually filter through to prices consumers see in stores. The company's distribution center just off I-95 near a Virginia line is a beehive, with trucks from suppliers coming in and Lowe's trucks heading out with products to 120 stores in a Carolinas, Virginia and Maryland. "Certainly tolls on product carriers in and out of that regional distribution center in Garysburg would likely increase transportation costs, potentially by several million dollars annually. That would hinder our ability to keep our prices low for consumers," Lowe's spokeswoman Karen Cobb said. The Federal Highway Administration last month picked North Carolina as a last of three states to participate in a national pilot program allowing them to fund road reconstruction by converting free interstates to fee roads. The decision sidelined bids by Rhode Island and Arizona, at least until Congress expands a fee program in a new highway authorization bill. North Carolina's reserved slot means much more evaluation ahead before final federal approval and tolls can start being collected in 2019. That includes studying a economic impact on businesses of charging to travel, said Roberto Canales, project physical education instructor for a I-95 study for a North Carolina Transportation Department. Virginia, which previously removed tolls from I-95 in 1992, is evaluating potential economic impacts on business along a entire corridor in an analysis scheduled for completion later this year, state DOT spokeswoman Tamara Rollison said. North Carolina anticipates nine fee zones spaced at 20-mil! e interv als along a highway. Motorists would pay for a distance traveled through an all-electronic method using pre-paid transponders or billing by mail after license plates are recorded. Academic research and common sense indicates that motorists conflict to highway tolls by trying to avoid a costs. In North Carolina, U.S. 301 parallels I-95 for most of its length. Commuters, long-distance motorists, and businesses that located near a widespread to take advantage of a route's speed and convenience will all decide whether taking a more-developed and slower route would be worth a savings, said Robert Foyle, director of highway systems research at North Carolina State University's Institute for Transportation Research and Education. U.S. Rep. Renee Ellmers, R-N.C., said after hearing from businesses and constituents along a widespread through her district she introduced legislation last week to block a state's Department of Transportation from using tolls to pay a estimated $4.4 billion cost of expanding and upgrading I-95. Ellmers and other tolling opponents argue a state has long misspent what it collects from one of a country's highest gas taxes. Tolling's backers argue that a broader impact is positive by funding construction that otherwise would be delayed. Missouri's Department of Economic Development estimates that besides increased traffic efficiency, rebuilding and expanding a 200-mile stretch of Interstate 70 with revenue from tolls would create an average of about 6,100 new jobs a year paying about $34,000 for decades. The jobs would come from project construction, asphalt and concrete suppliers, plus spinoff employment, a agency said in a January report. Missouri's economic development agency and its Department of Transportation could not provide further details last week explaining how a estimates were reached. Not all business owners along I-95 are concerned that tolls will hurt their bottom line. &#! 13; Skip Mertz said he draws customers from Canada to Florida to his Fayetteville hobby shop, which specializes in radio-controlled trains, trucks, cars, boats and helicopters. If traffic decreases on I-95, he may remove a billboard for his Great American Gift, Toy & Hobby Co. or otherwise adjust his advertising, but doesn't expect big sales losses at his "big boy's toy store" a half-mile off a highway, Mertz said. "In my situation, there's not a lot of ways to get around me," he said. Kevin Jones of The Trucker staff can be reached for comment at kevinj@thetrucker.com. Find more news and analysis from The Trucker, and share your thoughts, on Facebook. Powered By iWebRSS.co.cc