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Posted: December 17, 2012

Final leg of Wake toll road to open Thursday

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Holly Springs, N.C. — The third and final leg of the Triangle Expressway toll road in western Wake County will open Thursday, officials said Monday, but tolls won't be collected on the 6-mile stretch until Jan. 2.

The new section runs from U.S. Highway 64 in Apex to the N.C. Highway 55 Bypass in Holly Springs. The toll gantries on the highway will be at Old U.S. Highway 1/Salem Street, U.S. 1 and the N.C. 55 Bypass.

The opening comes a year after the first section of the toll road, the Triangle Parkway, opened, connecting N.C. Highway 147 in Durham to N.C. Highway 540 in Wake County. The second section, which carried N.C. 540 to U.S. 64, opened in August.

Tolls are collected electronically. Drivers who have a transponder affixed to their windshields are debited from an account they have set up, while those without a transponder are billed through the mail after the system photographs their license plates.

Web Editor: Matthew Burns

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If you think you're paying 9 cents a mile, or $2.70/gallon assuming 30 mpg, in gas taxes, no one can help you. No one.

$20 million in gas tax dollars go to pay for this road to keep the costs lower. Assuming 100,000 people live there (which they don't) this is $200 in gas taxes per person, per year. Plus "their" NC 55 widening/bypass up to souther Durham, "their" US 1 expansion through Cary, etc. -- the rest of the Triangle is covering the difference for people who have only beeen paying in for a few years.

The 1989 increase was for two-lanes-in-each direction loops around Charlotte and a few other cities. Republicans demanded more loops to be added (Ashville, Wilmington, Fayetville, Wilson/Kinston 795) and more lanes added to Charlotte, Greensboro, and Raleigh. And didn't raise taxes one dime to pay for any of it. The GOP raided the general fund for sales tax on vehicles and capped the gas tax to force cities and counties to raise taxes to maintain state roads.

ncwebguy
December 18, 2012 7:17 p.m.

I suspect the main users of this road will be professionals who work in RTP and live in Holly Springs or Fuquay. Those folks can afford it, and being able to avoid the hwy 55 parking lot will be well worth it. As for new development in Holly Springs - it's already started.

simplelogic
December 18, 2012 2:04 p.m.

@ "It boggles my mind that our government can somehow justify tolling only this one community in the whole state. But avoiding it makes no sense. You'll spend the same or more with all the stopping/starting on hwy 55...not to mention the extra wear/tear on your car. So you're wasting a lot more time to get to/from work, for no financial gain."

Avoiding this troll road makes plenty of sense based on principle alone. Take a stand for something or be doomed to fall for anything. The road can rot as far as I am concerned. Merry Christmas!

goozleboy
December 18, 2012 10:44 a.m.

just in time for the apocalypse! allow those HollySprings folks to run up 540 in order to travel west to avoid the natural disasters!