Ready to pay tolls for a faster commute to RTP?

$196M for I-795 and $1B for NC-540, yet both cover an 18-mile stretch. That's over 5X the cost of property between Wilson and Goldsboro. I find it hard to believe there is that much difference. Now they have to pay $13M on 795 for repairs because the DOT "experts" wanted to save $2.8M by making the road 5" thick instead of the recommended 8" (http://www.newsobserver.com/news/growth/traffic/story/1610809.html). This new 540 extension may very well get light traffic due to high tolls, and will likely never pay for itself. The best solution is to introduce legislation that will allow the rest of 540 to be tolled, thereby spreading the costs out to more Triangle residents. Personally, I'd take the toll if it were $1 each way, but probably not $2. Let's just hope they don't do something else stupid, like putting only 5" of pavement down.

This plan is crap. Rapid Transit overhead Mono-Rail is the way to go. It's run off the track, it's called Meglev and floats off the track.

Too much common sense I suppose. I forgot our politicians are self serving.

Believe me I understand the need for jobs and I understand the need for new and improved infrastructure. I also understand the need for fiscal responsibility. 19 miles of thruway at the price of 1 billion dollars. That's 52 million dollars a mile!!!. Are we building a casino or stadium somewhere along the way? Maybe a big shopping mall or amusement park? Let's assume 32,00 cars a day use the toll road (not likely - who wants to drive a toll road?) at two bucks a car and it will take 45 years for this road to pay for itself! Does anyone in the media ever ask the powers-that-be how they come up with the estimates for these projects? How did they arrive at $1 billion for this project? This amount of money for this project seems like lunacy to me, but hey, who am I to say?

Here we go again.

Let's build a another road to to nowhere. If this road connected with 40 then you'd have something. Why not bypass the whole mess?

Same old song and dance. Build a piece here, piece there to satisfy whoever screams the loudest.

Putting out fires is short sighted and will never never satisfy our transportation problems.

We're too far behind. We should be building roads where they will be needed in the future.

we'd best just not build it at all. There's this huge camp that tells me they won't pay more in gas taxes (we are one of the highest in the South) just for road -- or mass transit. There's this huge camp that tells me they won't pay tolls just to fund some small segment of new road. There's this huge camp that tells me they need new roads or expanded existing road just to get to work or shopping or play or just because it hasn't been paved yet. There's this huge camp that tells me there are too many drivers out there and we need less of them because we can't pay for the ones we already have. There's this huge camp that tells me we can't limit population, because we need more of them to prop us up in our old age by buying more cars to get around so they can buy more stuff so their taxes can pay for more things we say we need. Would you guys kindly make up your mind already (boy, I can't wait for oil to run out and all these cars/road will no longer bug us).

Slowly but surely, everything great about this state is coming to an end...and toll roads and listening to the excuses from politicians is just adding to that list. 540 has made driving a little more tolerable in the Triangle in the past couple of years, but why on earth for 18 miles of road do you start with the tolls now...with all the money wasted by these politicians and DOT experts on these transit projects and newly paved highways that always seem to be torn up as soon as they are built...you would think that 18 miles of road could be built out of taxpayers money instead of wasting millions of dollars to consultants to tell us that a mass train transit system will not work in NC. The people of Apex, Holly Springs and Fuquay deserve a free road to get to work and back more easily just as much as everyone else that enjoys there free commute on the public highways and interstates.

I hope a lot of people use it, thin out the traffic on the free road.

Most people who are saying they refuse to pay will end up taking the toll road and paying in the end. You can name all the shortcuts in the world but when everyone else uses the same ways to avoid the tolls the already bad traffic will simply get worse. Any other state who has toll roads can be used as an example. There's not one toll road that I know of that "failed" due to lack of traffic.

At the end of the day what most people will realize is that paying 5 bucks a week is well worth the 1 hour a day they will save to spend with family and friends-

I live in Apex and am so excited for this road to bring me closer to my work in Durham and my friends and family in North Raleigh. I think the idea of a toll road is great; maybe if we create more of these, we can cut the DMV budget and put the money where it's most needed -- in the classrooms.

I live right off the northern side of 540. I use it somewhat frequently, but really only to get between Capital Blvd and Glenwood Ave. I will be taking Strickland Road exclusively when the tollroad opens. I pay enough in taxes as it is.