storm

Toll road operators from West Virginia to Illinois and into New England have had their snowplows and salt spreaders out in full force the past 24 hours. The coastal states from Virginia up into New York have had more a slippery, melting mix - snow, sleet and rain.

Down in Norfolk VA they face the prospect of storm driven tidal flooding of a tunnel.

MTA's Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel (officially Hugh Carey Tunnel) was totally filled with sea water by the storm surge that flooded low lying parts of Manhattan and is likely to be out of service for months. The Queens Midtown Tunnel also took serious quantities of water and is closed.

The Cross Bay Bridge to the heavily hit Rockaways barrier island was closed but the other MTAB&T Marine/Hodges bridge is open.

Tollers on the east coast went from supporting evacuations before Hurricane/Storm Irene through restrictions on account of winds and flooding to closures in some cases. The Chesapeake Expressway, a city tollroad in southeast Virginia played a key role in allowing the North Carolina Outer Banks to be evacuated ahead of the Hurricane making landfall.

Miami Dade Expressway Authority is collecting tolls again from 2pm (14:00) after 27 hours suspension due to Tropical Storm Fay. The storm dumped heavy rain on the area and generates winds of up to 100km/hr (60mph) but did no damage and there were no storm-related incidents reported, MDX says.

Also the MD County causeways, Venetian and Rickenbacher toll from 14:00 Tuesday.

Toll collection has been suspended from 11am Monday (Aug 18) on most toll facilities in southern Florida because of the advance of a major tropical storm:

Exempt from tolls until further notice are

- Florida's Turnpike from its most southern point at US1 right up to IC86 in Palm Beach County

- all Miami-Dade Expressway Authority tollroads including state routes 836, 874, 112, 929 and 878