Truckers are now paying tolls on the Rhode Island side of on Interstate 95. They've racked up more than a half million dollars in just the first month of the tolling program. RIPR political analyst Scott MacKay says that’s hardly the end of this debate. ‘Tis the season of road and bridge construction. It seems like you can’t drive anywhere without encountering the pungent odor of fresh asphalt, the drone of backhoes and long lines of the unofficial summer state tree --- the orange highway cone. All this work is both inconvenient and necessary. You don’t have to be a civil engineer to know that roads and bridges in these parts have been neglected for too long. Just about every national ranking of infrastructure needs has Rhode Island scraping the bottom. For an eye-opening contrast, take a drive north to New Hampshire or Vermont. What you will experience are miles and miles of smooth highways. Then when you drive back and hit the Massachusetts border, the cracks and potholes reappear.