Commuters in Research Triangle Park and western Wake are a step closer to getting a toll road that could be in operation by 2011.

The state House voted Thursday to give the N.C. Turnpike Authority $25 million a year for the next 39 years to help build the 18-mile Triangle Expressway.

The money is an annual state commitment to cover the expected gap between toll collections and the cost of building, operating, maintaining and repaving the toll road, nicknamed TriEx.

David Joyner, the agency's executive director, said TriEx construction will start late this fall if the Senate approves the budget provision.

The proposed annual turnpike appropriation would grow from $25 million in 2009 to $49 million starting in 2010, to cover a funding gap for the state's second planned toll road, the Monroe Bypass in Mecklenburg and Union counties.

House budget leaders propose to pay for the turnpike appropriation by phasing out the annual transfer of $172 million from the Highway Trust Fund to the General Fund, where it is used for non-transportation needs.

The Triangle Expressway will combine the proposed 3.4-mile Triangle Parkway through RTP and a 12.4-mile extension of Raleigh's 540 Outer Loop from N.C. 55 at RTP to N.C. 55 at Holly Springs. The two new roads will be linked by an existing section of the 540 Outer Loop.

The toll road will have a cashless collection system: Drivers will use transponders attached to their windshields. Drivers would be responsible for adding money to an account, which would be deducted each time they drive the toll road.

Motorists will also have the option of registering their license plates. A camera will take pictures of the plates, and drivers would be sent invoices.

The transponder option will be cheaper for drivers, Joyner said.

Some western Wake residents are unhappy about the prospect of paying tolls to complete the Outer Loop, because its northern half was built with tax dollars.

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