Mediaboss Marketing

Raleigh, N.C. The state Department of Transportation gave the public one last opportunity Monday to speak out about aplan to collect tolls along Interstate 95 to pay for highway improvements.

About 200 people turned out for the final public meeting about the tolls at a Fayetteville hotel, 10 days after the Federal Highway Administration gave the plan conditional approval. Many asked that the state find other ways to fund road improvements, but the DOT said the sta has to maintain more roads with less money.

North Carolina, which is one of three states participating in a pilot project allowing tolling on existing interstates, consistently ranks in the top two states for the number of roads it manages. It also ranks near the bottom nationally in dollars spent per mile of highway.

Still, Chuck Fager, of Fayetteville, said he worries that tolls would scare business away from the I-95 corridor.

"It will make this region much less attractive to new businesses and employers," Fager said. "It will be an economic setback to the region."

Fager mapped the alternatives to the highway's path through North Carolina online.

"From border to border, it's three hours," he said. "If you take 301, it would take five hours."

Even if people do choose to take different routes, he said, tolls will still affect everyone.

"Most everything we buy will be coming by truck, and the heavy cost of the tolls will be passed on (to consumers)," Fager said.

Musheerah Ali, of Lumberton, drives on I-95 every day to get to Fayetteville for work and said she doesn't support tolling.

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DOT collects final public input in Fayetteville on I-95 tolling plan