Massachusetts Turnpike Increases Rates 25 cents per axle

[Bullwinkle]

The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority took a safe path this week by adopting a toll increase based on a scheduled rate not adjusted for mounting Big Dig expenses.

The authority’s Board of Directors voted Thursday, Oct. 4, in favor of a 25-cent increase that did not to go beyond a 2002 scheduled amount. Mounting debts and excess costs associated with the $14.8 billion Big Dig project have the state in a pickle, which could have caused tolls to go much higher.

A turnpike spokesman told Land Line the toll increase of 25 cents for passenger vehicles – and 25 cents per axle for heavy trucks – is an “interim solution.”