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Patient Man,

It's good to see someone realizes this was the game all along. Though the roads and bridges are being repaired NOW after years of deferred maintenance, RI taxpayers should be furious that the taxes collected for that purpose for years were obviously redirected , misspent and never replaced- the biggest problem in RI, besides taxpayer apathy, is lack of accountability with taxpayer funds.

It's also a farce that tractor-trailers should be targeted; it was done because they have deep pockets and have to pay it to conduct business, while the vehicles which actually do the most damage, CONSTRUCTION VEHICLES, get a pass because the contractors are in bed with the Governor and General Assembly. Construction vehicles have a much smaller "footprint" than tractor-trailers so their linear weight is far heavier, hence the damage done to roads & particularly bridges when a short, very heavy vehicle passes over them compared to a vehicle up to 70' long with a longer and lighter "footprint".

In the '60's and '70's, the mob-connected construction contractors lobbied and paid their friends in the General Assembly (and city and town councils) and had Representatives sell the idea of reducing costs of State and Municipal Public Works departments by replacing workers with private contractors to "save money" and not maintain fleets of vehicles. Fast-forward to today where contractors are the only option and project costs are high, budgets are always exceeded, workmanship is subpar and schedules are meaningless..."highway departments" can't even fill potholes.

Road and bridge repair projects are partially funded by Federal Highway funds and other subsidies, so the State funnels that money in addition to State taxpayer funds to the contractors for votes...of course the contractors are going to agree that tractor-trailers are causing the damage- it's in their best interest.

Putting up the gantries and collecting the taxes...er, um... I mean, tolls...was the quickest, most problem-free public works project I've witnessed in many, many years in RI.