The Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) announced Tuesday that it has asked the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to rescind a measure that some feared left the door open to tolls on the Sakonnet River Bridge.

At issue is a 2013 federal highway Record of Decision (ROD) that effectively granted federal authority to the state to impose tolls on the Sakonnet River Bridge. Because that authorization was never withdrawn after bridge tolls were halted in 2014, many suspected a scheme to eventually restore the tolls.

“The possibility of tolls being imposed on the bridge was already rendered moot by a state law that prohibits RIDOT from tolling cars. The letter was sent to remove any doubt,” RIDOT Director Peter Alviti said. ”We have no intention of tolling cars. This letter removes any ideas to the contrary."

The director said that FHWA could not rescind the ROD on its own because RIDOT is the project sponsor and joint lead agency at this site.

Among those to suspect that car tolls remained a possibility as long as the ROD remained in place was the Portsmouth Town Council.

Last month, the council voted to sue state and federal highway officials to challenge the legality of tolling motorists who cross over the span connecting Portsmouth and Tiverton.

“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,” Town Solicitor Kevin Gavin said last month.

“It will all go away if the recorded decision is rescinded; we’ll just drop the suit.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,” Portsmouth Town Administrator Richard Rainer, Jr. said then.

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

Under the RhodeWorks legislation, RIDOT is permitted to toll large commercial trucks as they cross bridges that RIDOT intends to rebuild or replace on federal roads. Two gantries to toll large commercial trucks have already been built on I-95 in southern Rhode Island and the implementation of the next ten gantries has started.