INTERSTATE 4 WILL REMAIN TOLL-FREE

State officials have been wanting for awhile to add toll lanes to Interstate 4 in Orange and Seminole counties, supported by the area's transportation planning agency MetroPlan Orlando.

It ain't gonna happen.

Thanks to a clause slipped into the federal transportation bill by Representative John Mica (R - Winter Park) and passed by both houses of Congress, any idea of toll lanes on the region's busiest freeway were killed. President Bush is expected to sign the legislation next week.