Cross Island Parkway

[Alex]

Eliminating tolls must be weighed against options

We'll need to compare specific alternatives for paying for the road before we know whether removing the tolls is a good idea.

The $39 million still owed on the $81 million project won't go away if the tolls are eliminated. The debt is now scheduled to be paid off in 2022.

Sure, no one likes to pay a toll, and few welcomed last year's increase from 50 cents to 75 cents for Palmetto Pass holders and from $1 to $1.25 for others. The state also tacked on a $1 monthly administrative fee. But is the cost too onerous for most users?

The toll road had been operating at a loss for all but one year -- after the debt was refinanced -- when the tolls were increased in 2008. Totals for revenue and expenses since the toll increases weren't immediately available.

[Chris]

I was like "wtf, tolls on the Cross Island Parkway?", but then I realized it wasn't the New York parkway, but the one in South Carolina   

Won't people just go around the other side of the island?

[Alps]

I was like "wtf, tolls on the Cross Island Parkway?", but then I realized it wasn't the New York parkway, but the one in South Carolina  

I was like "wtf, Cross Island Parkway in the Southeast thread?"