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Connecticut To Conduct Study On Electronic Tolls

Editor's Note: This article was updated on March 3, 2015.

HARTFORD, Conn. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- The Federal Highway Administration has approved a study of an electronic toll system in Connecticut.

The pilot program for so-called value-pricing bypasses a federal ban on federal highway tolls by offering an exemption that allows certain types of electronic tolls.

Value-pricing, or congestion pricing as it's sometimes called, assigns values for trips at different times and places for different motorists to encourage driving at different times and places to reduce congestion.

Connecticut To Conduct Study On Electronic Tolls

The tolls can be placed on designated express lanes, along borders and sections of highway if the revenue generated finances public works improvements.

Hearst Connecticut Media reported that hundreds of opponents have taken to the website of the legislature's Transportation Committee.

The study began in 2013 and is focused on the New York corridor of Interstate 95 to New Haven and Interstate 84 around Hartford.

State Sen. Scott Frantz believes tolls at borders would especially be catastrophic, citing the traffic nightmare that went on in Greenwich for years after the 1983 collapse and shutdown of the Mianus River Bridge.

"We had thousands of cars coming through our town every day for 2 1/2 to three years; it shut down businesses, kids couldn't get to school, it was absolutely terrible," Frantz told WCBS 880's Fran Schneidau. "It's unfair, it's going to create mayhem in these border towns in terms of the people trying to get around the tolls."

The Associated Press had erroneously reported that Connecticut was approved for a pilot program to implement electronic tolls.

(TM and © Copyright 2015 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2015 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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