Apparently so. A new financial study says thousands of Research Triangle Park workers would gladly pay that much for a faster commute -- generating enough money in tolls to cover most of the cost of building it.

The N.C. Turnpike Authority, which released what it called preliminary findings Wednesday, hopes to start building the north-south freeway through RTP by 2008 and to open it by 2010.

New cost estimates put construction of the Triangle Parkway between $124 million and $148 million. The financial study by Wilbur Smith Associates, a South Carolina-based engineering consultant, predicted that toll revenues would cover about two-thirds of that cost.

Design revisions and cost details still must be worked out. A more exhaustive financial study will be needed before Wall Street lenders agree to put up construction money that would be repaid from toll collections.

And the Turnpike Authority, authorized by the General Assembly to build up to nine toll roads and bridges across the state, would have to find other funds for the costs not covered by tolls.

"I think it's achievable, but we've got a lot of work to do," said Robert D. Teer Jr. of Durham, an RTP developer who serves on the turnpike authority. "Hopefully, by midyear, we'll have a good idea whether we can do Triangle Parkway."

The $200,000 study predicted that with a toll starting at $1, the parkway would attract about 14,000 cars a day in its first years.

With heavy residential and job growth expected south of RTP during the coming decades, the parkway's daily car count would grow to 52,000 by 2030, the study said. By then, with the toll bumped up to $2 to keep pace with inflation, the Turnpike Authority would be raking in $37 million a year from drivers.

Edward J. Regan III of New Haven, Conn., a Wilbur Smith senior vice president, predicted that 75 percent of Triangle Parkway tolls would be collected electronically, using technology that lets drivers pay without having to slow down for toll plazas.

Toll collections could cover between $71 million and $94 million in construction costs, he said. That prediction depends on what Regan called a "risky" forecast for strong growth. It assumes tolls would be collected for the next 40 years.

"Potentially, two-thirds of the project cost can be handled with tolls -- and that's a pretty significant portion, given this age of scarce tax resources," Regan said.

Research Triangle Park's founders planned a north-south freeway nearly 50 years ago -- before Interstate 40 and the I-540 Outer Loop were built -- and set aside land for the right-of-way. State highway engineers factored the Triangle Parkway into their calculations when they designed the I-540 Outer Loop near RTP.

The parkway would extend N.C. 147, the Durham Freeway, south from I-40 through RTP to I-540, now under construction just south of the park. Plans include interchanges at Hopson Road and Davis Drive.

Many commuters from Raleigh and other points east of RTP would take I-540 to the Triangle Parkway -- entering the park from the southern end, along with drivers from the south. Commuters from the west would use the northern end of the parkway.

Joseph A. Freddoso, site manager for Cisco Systems in RTP, welcomed the prospect of a new parkway. Commuters will decide whether it's worth it, he said.

"All of our employees will weigh the time savings versus the cost, and they'll make the best decisions for themselves," he said.

Plans call for stopping the Triangle Parkway at I-540, but Regan's report included traffic calculations for a proposed extension that would take the parkway another mile south to Morrisville's McCrimmon Parkway.

The McCrimmon extension would add about 20,000 cars to the daily traffic count and $6 million to annual toll collections by 2030, Regan said.

Morrisville developers and town officials have lobbied for the McCrimmon extension over the past two years. The Turnpike Authority voted to add it and then, last fall, to cut it from the plans. The issue is still up in the air, along with other details including what tolls drivers would pay.

"The question is cost and revenue," said David Joyner, the turnpike authority director. "The revenue from extending it to McCrimmon looks very positive, but the engineering work would be difficult."

Similar financial studies are expected this spring for other proposed toll roads including the planned 29-mile extension of Raleigh's Outer Loop into southern Wake County.

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