For whom the beltway tolls.

• Position: Triangle

Three years ago, David Joyner got into his car and went to see some mayors in western Wake County about making a planned bypass around Raleigh's west side a toll road. A toll-free bypass on the north side was nearing completion, and the mayors wanted their leg of the Raleigh Outer Loop to be a freeway, too.

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Joyner, executive director of the N.C. Turnpike Authority, had bad news: There was no money for the project. The earliest a toll-free road could be built was 20 years. With some persuasion, the mayors eventually came around. The toll road won the backing of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, a regional agency that coordinates the efforts of local governments in Wake and surrounding counties. "Essentially, what was presented to us was: It's toll road or no road," CAMPO Director Ed Johnson recalls.

So in August, dignitaries with fancy shovels broke ground on the $1 billion, 18.8-mile Triangle Expressway, which will link Raleigh's western suburbs with Research Triangle Park. When the first phase opens in two years, it will be the state's first toll road of the modern era but not the last. Four more are in planning, and the Turnpike Authority, created by the General Assembly in 2002, has approval to study four others. TriEx won't have tollbooths. It will use cameras and other electronic equipment to identify drivers. The toll hasn't been set, but an initial estimate is 14 cents a mile. When the road is paid...