It will all go away if the recorded decision is rescinded; we’ll just drop the suit.”

Richard Rainer, Jr., Portsmouth's town administrator

PORTSMOUTH — The Town of Portsmouth is following through on its threat to sue over the possibility of any future tolls on the Sakonnet River Bridge.

During an executive session Monday night, the Town Council voted to authorize Town Solicitor Kevin Gavin to file a federal lawsuit against state and federal highway officials to challenge the legality of tolling motorists who cross over the span connecting Portsmouth and Tiverton. Council Vice President Linda Ujifusa announced the vote at the start of the meeting’s public session.

Although a toll on the bridge was implemented in August 2013, it went away in June 2014 in the face of local opposition and the gantry was removed in February 2016. 

Town officials, however, say the door is still open for a future toll due to a revised record of decision (ROD) issued in April 2013 by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) that approved the implementation of a levy on the bridge. 

The suit is necessary, said Town Administrator Richard Rainer, Jr., because the ROD is still in effect.

The town first made its intentions known when it sent a Jan. 18 letter to state and federal highway officials, reiterating what local officials first declared back in 2013: The implementation of tolls on the bridge are illegal under federal law.

That letter was addressed to Carlos C. Machado, division administrator of the FHWA; Peter Alviti, Jr., director of the R.I. Department of Transportation (RIDOT); and Buddy Croft, executive director of the R.I. Turnpike and Bridge Authority (RITBA).

Mr. Rainer said the Jan. 18 letter was a “purely administrative” move in order to preserve the town’s ability to file suit under the federal Administrative Procedures Act (APA) to prevent any future tolls. The statute of limitations runs out in April, so without any pushback from the town, local officials would never be able to redress the issue, he said.

No response

Now the town must take legal action, Mr. Rainer said after Monday’s meeting, because it never heard back from any of the parties that received the Jan. 18 letter.

“We never got a response, and that’s the whole point. Because we didn’t get a response, we’re going to go ahead and file,” he said. 

If the state decides it wants to reevaluate putting a tolling gantry back on the Sakonnet River Bridge, “we would be powerless to do anything against that, if we don’t do this now,” Mr. Rainer added. “If (the ROD) is not rescinded by that date in April, then we lose our ability to fight a bridge toll if it were put in place in the future.” 

The town would reconsider any legal action if the ROD were revoked, he said.

“It will all go away if the recorded decision is rescinded; we’ll just drop the suit. What we’re doing is protecting the town’s interests,” the administrator said.

“The town is simply requesting that FHWA issue a rescission of the April 22, 2013 Revised Record of Decision, which granted federal authority for the state to impose tolls on the Sakonnet River Bridge,” Mr. Gavin stated in an e-mail to The Portsmouth Times on Tuesday.

The town’s complaint will likely name as defendants the same individuals and respective agencies that were addressed in the town’s Jan. 18 letter, he said.