Editing Interstate Highway System (section)

===Tolls===
{{Category see also|Tolled sections of Interstate Highways}}
[[File:2022-07-31 12 16 28 View west along Interstate 76 (Pennsylvania Turnpike Philadelphia Extension) just west of Exit 320 in Charlestown Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania.jpg|thumb|right|An [[Interstate 76 (Ohio–New Jersey)|I-76]] trailblazer along the [[Pennsylvania Turnpike]] with the black-on-yellow "Toll" sign]]

About {{convert|2,900|mi|km}} of toll roads are included in the Interstate Highway System.<ref>{{cite web |first = Martin H. |last = Weiss |date = April 7, 2011 |url = https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/highwayhistory/howmany.cfm |title = How Many Interstate Programs Were There? |work = Highway History |publisher = Federal Highway Administration |access-date = March 10, 2012 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130607213511/http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/highwayhistory/howmany.cfm |archive-date = June 7, 2013 |url-status = live }}</ref> While federal legislation initially banned the collection of tolls on Interstates, many of the toll roads on the system were either completed or under construction when the Interstate Highway System was established. Since these highways provided logical connections to other parts of the system, they were designated as Interstate highways. [[United States Congress|Congress]] also decided that it was too costly to either build toll-free Interstates parallel to these toll roads, or directly repay all the bondholders who financed these facilities and remove the tolls. Thus, these toll roads were [[Grandfather clause|grandfathered]] into the Interstate Highway System.<ref>{{cite web |last = Weingroff |first = Richard F. |date = August 2, 2011 |url = https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/tollroad.cfm |title = Why Does The Interstate System Include Toll Facilities? |work = Ask the Rambler |publisher = Federal Highway Administration |access-date = March 10, 2012 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130518082124/http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/tollroad.cfm |archive-date = May 18, 2013 |url-status = live }}</ref>

Toll roads designated as Interstates (such as the [[Massachusetts Turnpike]]) were typically allowed to continue collecting tolls, but are generally ineligible to receive federal funds for maintenance and improvements. Some toll roads that did receive federal funds to finance emergency repairs (notably the [[Connecticut Turnpike]] (I-95) following the [[Mianus River Bridge]] collapse) were required to remove tolls as soon as the highway's construction bonds were paid off. In addition, these toll facilities were grandfathered from [[Interstate Highway standards]]. A notable example is the western approach to the [[Benjamin Franklin Bridge]] in [[Philadelphia]], where [[Interstate 676|I-676]] has a surface street section through a historic area.

Policies on toll facilities and Interstate Highways have since changed. The [[Federal Highway Administration]] has allowed some states to collect tolls on existing Interstate Highways, while a recent extension of [[Interstate 376|I-376]] included a section of [[Pennsylvania Route&nbsp;60]] that was tolled by the [[Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission]] before receiving Interstate designation. Also, newer toll facilities (like the tolled section of I-376, which was built in the early 1990s) must conform to Interstate standards. A new addition of the ''[[Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices]]'' in 2009 requires a black-on-yellow "Toll" sign to be placed above the Interstate trailblazer on Interstate Highways that collect tolls.<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url = https://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/shsm_interim/index.htm |chapter = Interim Releases for New and Revised Signs |publisher = Federal Highway Administration |date = November 16, 2011 |title = Standard Highway Signs and Markings |access-date = March 10, 2012 |author = Federal Highway Administration |archive-date = March 18, 2012 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120318045005/http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/shsm_interim/index.htm |url-status = live }}</ref>

Legislation passed in 2005 known as [[SAFETEA-LU]] encouraged states to construct new Interstate Highways through "innovative financing" methods. SAFETEA-LU facilitated states to pursue innovative financing by easing the restrictions on building interstates as toll roads, either through state agencies or through [[public–private partnership]]s. However, SAFETEA-LU left in place a prohibition of installing tolls on existing toll-free Interstates, and states wishing to toll such routes to finance upgrades and repairs must first seek approval from Congress.  Many states have started using [[High-occupancy toll lane]] and other partial tolling methods, whereby certain lanes of highly congested freeways are tolled, while others are left free, allowing people to pay a fee to travel in less congested lanes.  Examples of recent projects to add HOT lanes to existing freeways include the [[Virginia HOT lanes]] on the Virginia portions of the [[Capital Beltway]] and other related interstate highways (I-95, I-495, I-395) and the addition of express toll lanes to [[Interstate 77 in North Carolina]] in the [[Charlotte metropolitan area]].