I agree with The Pilot totally on I-95 (March 16). The state needs to be challenged on this tax grab on several fronts.

When Ike started the Interstate system, it was modeled after the German roads he found during the war. There were no intersections, just bridges and overpasses. Restricted access made them very safe at high speeds.

The Interstate system was developed as a national defense highway. The roads are wider, and the construction was initially very thick concrete to allow for very heavy loads during war, and sections are intentionally built straight with no bridges to act as emergency airfields during war.

The system, which took more than 50 years to complete, was paid for by a 90 percent federal and 10 percent state cost-sharing and, to get approval, the system was designed to pass all of the state capitals in the lower 48 states.

Raleigh was the very last capital to be on the system. Tolls were not allowed. The only exception was when existing toll roads that met the standard were brought into the Interstate system. The turnpike around Richmond is an example, but when the bonds were retired the road became free.

I would think it would take an act of Congress to now allow tolls and not just the Department of Transportation OK. Georgia and Florida have widened a major part of I-95. Work goes on now in these states, and the cost is nowhere close to the projections per mile coming out of Raleigh.

The work has already been done around Lumberton and Fayetteville and Rocky Mount. Bridges were initially wide enough for a planned expansion. Are the Feds paying 90 percent? I think so.

Investigate this, please.

Glenn Lancaster

Vass