Officials Won’t Seek Bay Bridge Toll Increase

Bay Area transportation officials decided Friday that drivers should not have to hand over an extra buck at Bay Bridge tollbooths. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission rejected a plan to charge drivers $3 to cross the Bay Bridge span. The commission’s decision came despite soaring cost estimates for building a new Bay Bridge eastern span. Ultimately, only legislators can institute a toll increase. Still, the commission pushed for several alternative funding methods. Officials planned to ask the state for more federal funds and a loan for seismic retrofitting. The motorists’ share would come from the permanent extension of the $1 seismic surcharge, which was set to end in 2007. The state’s part would come from federal money received for highway bridge repairs. That would bring the split cost for bridge repairs to $1.6 billion for motorists and $1.31 billion from the state.