Truck-only Tollway linking Ohio Turnpike and NY Thruway

[mtantillo]

Saw this on Tollroadsnews.com this morning. 

http://tinyurl.com/3zpbwmu
(full URL below)

Apparently the impetus behind this idea is to allow LCV's (full length doubles and short triples) to connect directly between the Ohio Turnpike south of Cleveland and the NY Thruway at the PA state line.  LCV's are allowed on Turnpikes in the eastern part of the USA, but not on free interstates.  So an LCV wanting to travel from Chicagoland to Boston would have to break up in Cleveland into 2 trucks to go the couple hundred miles from the Cleveland area to east of Erie, and then can re-combine into an LCV to cross NY and MA.  The idea is that:
1) providing a link would enable LCV's to travel un-impeded from Chicago to Boston (and to NYC via the longer "water level route"). 
2) providing a link would separate trucks from cars on the busy section of I-90 from Cleveland to the NY State line. 

Not sure how i feel about this idea.  I understand the serious concerns with running LCV's on regular interstates with closely spaced interchanges (as ooposed to the better engineered, better maintained turnpikes).  I definitely do not like Mr. Samuel's idea of "stealing" the I-271 express lanes.  I think the concept is a good idea in theory, but I'm not sure there is huge demand for it. New England and Upstate NY are less and less significant to the nation's economy (in part due to union labor costs, in part just due to explosive growth elsewhere in the country).  I think the idea could be viable if they tolled trucks and cars.  Trucks get a brand new tollway....cars get all the trucks removed from their roadway and therefore have a more pleasant driving experience and more capacity. 

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/5433?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tollroadsnews+%28TOLLROADSnews%29

[Stephane Dumas]

Does the concept of truck tolls is a bit similar to the once proposed (and cancelled) trucks lanes along I-81 in Virginia a decade ago?

[mtantillo]

Does the concept of truck tolls is a bit similar to the once proposed (and cancelled) trucks lanes along I-81 in Virginia a decade ago?

Yes, exactly the same concept.  Force the trucks into an entirely different set of tolled lanes.  In Virginia's case, it wasn't to fill in a gap where LCV's could operate though. 

[ShawnP]

Seems the same as the lame I-70 plan from WVA to KC........

[JREwing78]

It would be more viable if the existing highway was tolled. But the vast majority of truck traffic on the Ohio Turnpike and the Thruway is NOT traffic that couldn't use the existing free section.

And certainly the Ohio section of I-90 is comparable in standards to the Ohio Turnpike, and PA's and NY's sections are not horribly substandard. I don't see why an exception couldn't be made here to allow LCV's on this section.

[Sykotyk]

It would be more viable if the existing highway was tolled. But the vast majority of truck traffic on the Ohio Turnpike and the Thruway is NOT traffic that couldn't use the existing free section.

And certainly the Ohio section of I-90 is comparable in standards to the Ohio Turnpike, and PA's and NY's sections are not horribly substandard. I don't see why an exception couldn't be made here to allow LCV's on this section.

That would be the cheapest alternative.