State transportation officials should just forget about improving Interstate 95 while going ahead with their tolling scheme on the highway.

Why? Because if their tolling plan is put in place, traffic on the road ought to be reduced enough to make widening and other improvements pointless.

If that sounds like an exaggeration, consider this: Right now, Department of Transportation officials are considering widening the 60-mile stretch of I-95 between Lumberton and Benson to eight lanes. The goal is to have the project completed by 2019. Their preliminary plan calls for motorists, beginning in 2019, to pay tolls of around 19 cents per mile.

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