New Bedford-Fairhaven Bridge: To Toll or Not to Toll?

We're still a few years away from breaking ground on a revamped New Bedford-Fairhaven Bridge. The new bridge will have a completely different style, resembling the Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge in Bourne.

However, could it also resemble Boston's Tobin Bridge in one particular way? In other words, should SouthCoast residents brace themselves for the updated New Bedford-Fairhaven Bridge to be a toll bridge?

If the secretary and CEO of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation has her way, Massachusetts will see more places to pay up. She envisions the state "aggressively" ramping up fees, fines and tolls, particularly at the state border.

"We're basically going after anybody who has money," Monica Tibbits-Nutt said during an April 10 keynote for advocacy group Walk Massachusetts.

Taking her at her word, Tibbits-Nutt wants to squeeze more money out of any Massachusetts resident who has it. Though she said the tolls she wants to see would go only at the borders, not within Massachusetts itself, thinking logically, why wouldn't this eventually mean imposing a toll on the new bridge in New Bedford and Fairhaven? It'd be another money-making opportunity.

"If anybody wants anything, we are poor. We're broke. We have no money," Tibbits-Nutt said. "So, what are we going to do about that? We've got to get aggressive. We're not censoring this. I'm going to talk about tolling. I'm going to talk about charging more for package deliveries and payroll taxes."

Now that Tibbits-Nutt has weighed in on her support for more tolls, should we start preparing ourselves to open the wallet when we cross over from New Bedford to Fairhaven? It wouldn't be that easy. For one, Gov. Maura Healey distanced herself from Tibbits-Nutt's comments. The governor said she is not proposing any tolls at state borders.

While Tibbits-Nutt might no longer hold her position by the time the new bridge is ready for use, it is unlikely that bureaucrats' appetite for a toll would go away -- should her idea catch on, that is.

With electronic tolling technology such as the state's EZDriveMA, automobiles would not have to stop to pay the tolls, eliminating any backups.

The potential cost, however, would be anyone's guess.

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The New Bedford-Fairhaven Bridge closes. A lot. Here's how to pass the time when you didn't check the schedule and find yourself stuck waiting for the bridge to open. These fun suggestions come from our Facebook friends and appear exactly as they submitted them.

Gallery Credit: Jackson Scott

Hilarious Google Reviews of the New Bedford-Fairhaven Bridge

We've all been there. You think you've made it with a couple of minutes to spare, only to get caught at the red light as the bridge closes. Some of us turn around. Others wait. What most of us don't do, however, is take our anger to the internet — but apparently, several people have, and the results are both hilarious and relatable.

With an average rating of two stars on Google, our love-to-hate-it SouthCoast landmark proves that it's at least slow enough for those stuck waiting to grab their phones and pour out their feelings online. From glowing to glowering, here's what people have to say about the New Bedford-Fairhaven bridge.

Gallery Credit: Kate Robinson