Tolls are a $180 million a year business — and growing — in Hampton Roads

Collecting tolls in Hampton Roads is a $180-million-a-year business — nearly twice the size of the region’s fishing and farming sectors combined — and is set to grow.

Much of that money goes to finance a private venture’s $1.5 billion expansion of the road and tunnel network connecting Norfolk and Portsmouth. A somewhat smaller amount goes to the public body that’s spending nearly $800 million to dig a parallel tunnel for the 55-year-old, 23-mile Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.

A much smaller part goes to keep the Coleman Bridge over the York River in shape, and to pay off the cost of its 1996 widening.

And the tiniest chunk goes to steer traffic on and off of Norfolk’s new express lanes to ease congestion on Interstate 64.

Read the rest of the story here.